Last year, Mark Wahlberg made it clear that he’d be interested in a sequel to The Departed, the eventual Best Picture winner.

“We may do another one, because it’s based on a Hong Kong film [Infernal Affairs], and there is a trilogy. So we may do a sequel with a new cast, and a prequel and bring back the rest of the guys,” he said at the time.

Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon in a scene from The Departed.

More than a year later, Wahlberg was asked by MTV where the project stands.

“They’re [still] developing it,” Wahlberg said. “If it can be better than the first, then great. I’ll be all for it. I’m not interested in going for the paycheck. I love Godfather 2 but, then again, I don’t like Godfather 3.”

Considering the demise of most main characters, and the high bar set by the first film, would you wanna see a sequel to The Departed?

Mark Wahlberg doesn’t count war (Three Kings), a skyscraper-sized wave (The Perfect Storm) or the Apocalypse (The Happening and Planet of the Apes) as his most daunting obstacle to date?

Instead, the actor points to a video game character.

“Two weeks out I was just dying,” Wahlberg said to MTV of his title role in the upcoming video game adaptation, Max Payne. “I wanted my life back.”

Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne? Safe to say we’re excited about that.

More than anything, Wahlberg is excited about how complex the character is.

“Max Payne is not a one-trick pony. It’s probably one of the edgier roles I’ve played but also the most layered,” he said. “Here’s a very happy guy who worked a dismal job, had a beautiful family. But the beauty in his life was taken away. He just goes on a rampage. It’s all driven by emotion.”

Mark Wahlberg must be feeling some good vibrations today. The rapper-turned-actor is 37 years old.

After leaving The Funky Bunch behind, Wahlberg has established himself as a serious presence on the big screen. The Massachusetts-native has been nominated for an Oscar and is starring in this summer’s The Happening.

Here are other movies on the actor’s resume:

• The Departed
• I Heart Huckabees
• Boogie Nights

As reported previously, Mark Wahlberg is currently filming The Lonely Bones.

And Variety is now reporting that the former rapper will star in the motion picture adaptation of “Max Payne,” based on the video game.

The game tells of a cop who loses his family to a horrific crime. Consequently, he decides to bend the rules and go after the murderers in New York City.

Mark Wahlberg is taking over the role of grieving father in the big screen adaption of the best-selling novel, Lovely Bones.

Peter Jackson wrote the script for this anticipated, which originally starred Ryan Gosling and Rachel Weisz.

But the former left the project after just a day of shooting, enabling Wahlgberg to step in.

Weisz is still on board, though, as is newcomer Saoirse Ronan, who stars as the murdered the girl, looking down on her family from heaven.

Shooting beings today in Pennsylvania.

Mark Wahlberg has worked with Jonathan Demme, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese.

But the former rapper is really excited to work with his next director, M. Night Shyamalan.

“The first scene we shot was a five-page scene in a classroom that any other director I’ve worked with would have taken three days to shoot, but we shot it by lunch,” Wahlberg said about his work with Shyamalan on The Happening.

“It’s beautiful. I’ve never walked into a trailer where your sides are there and your storyboards are there for the day. He just knows what he wants.”

And we love seeing what the director wants on screen… ignoring the piece of junk that was The Lady in the Water.

Set amidst a worldwide catastrophe that has the planet fighting back against humanity, infecting people with a neurotoxin which makes them want to kill themselves, Wahlberg insisted The Happening is more character study than apocalyptic vision.

“My wife, played by Zooey Deschanel, is a therapist. The movie is about our relationship and the conflicts we’re having set [amid] this kind of horrific disaster,” Wahlberg said. “I play kind of a nerdy science teacher from Philadelphia - the best teacher you’ve ever seen, but I have difficulties in being the man she wants me to be. I am extremely positive and optimistic and she’s the opposite.”