Could Mark Wahlberg be set to play the character of Duke in a G.I. Joe film? Well it looks like it, and it's much more than just Wahlberg talking about how nice the role would be.

The Producer of Shooter, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, said that they will start working on the film of G.I. Joe as soon as Transformers has been completed, and that they would like Wahlberg to be the character.

Then, when IESB went onto interview Wahlberg for his role in Shooter, he said that he would love to do it:

"You know what, I'll do whatever Lorenzo wants me to do; it really depends on the script, obviously, but it's a cool idea. He says it's going to be kick ass, so yeah. But he's already putting that out there, so who knows. He knows how to get me to say yes."

How would that be? Cash, billing and the promise of great action sequences that make him look good? Joking aside IESB say that this film is set to show the rise of the criminal organisation COBRA, against which G.I. Joe are fighting. It will feature some of the main characters such as Destro, Stormshadow, Duke, Hawk and Snake Eyes.

All this is beyond me, mainly because I have no idea about the franchise, however here's a little snippet from Wikipedia, did you know that the character has been on the go since the 1940's? Well the film is set to follow the 1982 characters which are known more widely today.

G.I. Joe is a highly capable branch of America's military whose purpose is to defend the world against enemy attack. Their main adversary is the COBRA Organization, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

The cast of each group is full of colorful and eccentric characters, each of whom have interesting abilities. The content of the animated show, although dealing with war and fighting, was still relatively mild as characters rarely, if ever, died even in the most dangerous circumstances. One example of this can be seen whenever an airplane was destroyed in combat; the characters inside were invariably shown parachuting out of the wreckage in the nick of time.

The show was also known for its public service announcements, where one of the Joes would give an important safety lesson to a group of children engaged in risky behavior. These PSAs always ended with the famous exchange: "Now we know!" "And knowing is half the battle".

So it's a bit like the A-Team with no one dying then? It's also interesting to see that there are quite a few real people who have been gifted with a G.I. Joe figure of themselves, from Bush to Stallone, Bob Hope to Robert E. Lee. It's quite a franchise indeed. So for Wahlberg to play the lead character in the first film outing might be quite a thing for him.