The Academy Award nominated LaKeith Stanfield has signed on to star alongside Mark Wahlberg in Play Dirty, the Shane Black directed crime-thriller based on Donald E. Westlake’s series of books.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Judas and the Black Messiah star will join the Amazon MGM Studios production to play the character of Grofield, an actor-slash-con artist who teams up with Wahlberg’s professional thief.
Wahlberg replaced Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role of Parker, who’s described as a career criminal who approaches his job with a straightforward, no-nonsense work ethic, who is double-crossed and left for dead. His hunt for revenge brings with it a shot at the biggest heist of his career. So with the help of his partner, the aforementioned Grofield, he’ll need to outsmart a South American dictator, the New York mob and the world’s richest man if he hopes to stay alive.
Downey Jr. remains on board as an exec producer with Susan Downey and their Team Downey Production company.
Shane Black will direct from a script he wrote alongside Charles Mondry (Road House) and Anthony Bagarozzi (The Nice Guys).
LaKeith Stanfield is coming off the back of headlining Jeymes Samuel’s The Book of Clarence (read our review here), while Wahlberg has had streaming success with his Apple TV+ family flick The Family Plan (read our review here). Play Dirty will be Shane Black’s first film since 2018 misfire The Predator.
