Turtle and Johnny Drama will ride again. After years of talk, HBO has given the green light to a movie re-boot of "Entourage."
The series, which ran from 2004-2011, helped make stars of lead actor Adrian Grenier ("Vincent Chase"), best friend/manager Kevin Connolly ("Eric Murphy") and sneaker-loving assistant Jerry Ferrara ("Salvatore 'Turtle' Assante"). According to Deadline Hollywood, series creator Doug Ellin will direct the movie based on a screenplay he wrote and executive producer Mark Wahlberg is on board as well.
Deals are in the works to bring back Grenier, Connolly and Ferrara, as well as Kevin Dillon ("Johnny 'Drama' Chase") and Jeremy Piven ("Ari Gold"). As of now there is no start date for the movie, and it's unknown if it will pick up where the series left off, with Piven's volcanic-tempered agent quitting the business to appease his wife, only to get an offer to run a major film studio, his dream job. As far back as June 2010, "Broken City" star Wahlberg told that he was eager to bring the gang — many of whom are based on his own legendary circle of pals — to the big screen.
"I just think we can make a great movie. I think people always wanted [it] and have complained that the episodes are too short — they've always wanted more," he said. "I think we're going to do it. We just have to end strong, and this season is, by far, the best season so far."
In September, Wahlberg revealed that Ellin had finished the script and that production could crank up in the spring. "[The movie is] going to get back to the basics, kind of like the beginning of the series," Wahlberg told Hollyscoop. "We had very strong female characters, but we want the guys to get back to just being guys ... I think they were all weighed down by these strong women towards the end of the series, so we are going to get them going crazy everyone wants to see them get nuts again."