AceShowbiz -

High in demand after his stellar performance in "The Departed", Mark Wahlberg has delightfully been picked up to topline 20th Century Fox's paranoia thriller "The Happening", the studio has announced.

Co-financed by India's UTV, the project revolves around a family who is on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity. Onboard to direct is "The Village" helmer M. Night Shyamalan who penned the flick's original script and successfully sold it to Fox.

In response to Wahlberg's appointment, the India-born filmmaker has sincerely expressed his approval on the actor to lead the cast of the movie.

"Mark has a unique blend of charisma, humanity, authenticity and skillfulness as an actor;" so he commented. "All of which coalesced at this moment in his career, making him the perfect person to take on the role of Elliot Moore, the science teacher at the center of this event."

Filming on the picture is scheduled to start August this year in Philadelphia with Shyamalan also serving as producer alongside Sam Mercer and Barry Mendel. Fox has revealed that the movie will be released worldwide exactly on Friday the 13th of June 2008.

"Friday the 13th has very distinctive, global connotations, which make it the ideal launching pad for this frightening thriller," Fox's President of Domestic Distribution Bruce Snyder explained.