Why Mark Wahlberg Wanted Justin Bieber for Basketball Movie

Mark Wahlberg seems really excited about working with Justin Bieber on their basketball movie.

The actor knows a bit about being a teen sensation—the young ladies were rather fond of him back when he was a rapper known as Marky Mark (although the Biebs rap alter ego Shawty Mane has the better rapper name). Plus his brother Donnie Wahlberg was a member of the band New Kids on the Block.

So while it might seem like a stretch for Justin to make the move from music to movies, Mark Wahlberg is proof that it can be done, and he's hoping to help the Biebs do it.

The actor said that it was intuition that led him to try to hook up with Justin Bieber for the basketball drama, which he initially thought he was going to play "the young guy" in. According to MTV, this is what Mark said about his initial thoughts about the idea: "So I get this call from Paramount [with a story about] an old guy and a young guy. I'm like, 'Cool, let's get Jack [Nicholson]. Let's get Robert De Niro. Let's get Robert Duvall.' And they go, 'What about Garrett Hedlund?' I'm like, 'For what?' They're like, 'For the young guy.'" Ouch!

Of course now the role of "the young guy" is going to the Biebs, and Mark Wahlberg seems to have plenty of faith in his casting choice. Here's what he said about Justin: "I see the guy and spent time with him, and you see what he does and how he does it, and then you actually have a conversation with him, and it's there. It's there — and if not, I will extract it." Hopefully he won't have to extract it—that sounds a bit scary (and painful).

At least Mark won't have to "extract" Justin Bieber's basketball skills for the movie—he showed that he was King of the Court by being named MVP at Ludacris's charity basketball game earlier this year, and he even managed to score on legendary NBA star Steve Nash. So maybe the movie is going to be about some short kid who doesn't look like he'd be a great basketball player becoming a big star.

Are you excited about getting to see Justin work with Mark Wahlberg, and do you think the Biebs will end up having the same kind of staying power? Check out Justin scoring on Steve Nash as Selena Gomez cheers him on in the video below, and sound off on your thoughts about his basketball movie in the comments.