Max Payne is an upcoming 2008 action film based on the 2001 video game of the same name. The film is directed by John Moore and stars Mark Wahlberg in the titular role. The film is scheduled to be released on October 16, 2008 in Australia, one day prior to the United States release date.

Though 7 million fans have their own version of how the adventures of Max Payne should turn out, John Moore accepted the challenge of adapting the hit videogame anyway. ''Once you take control away from the player,'' he says, ''you better be sure what you're giving back is as interesting.'' One way to raise interest: Cast Mark Wahlberg as Payne, the DEA agent who hunts down enemies (some beyond the natural world) who murdered his family. ''There's the easy way to play this character, which is very one-note, man-on-a-mission, brooding,'' says Wahlberg. ''But people are going to be surprised when they see how multilayered he really is.''

Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) is a cop whose family and partner are brutally murdered. He embarks on a maverick path, venturing into the underworld to find those responsible for the murders. Payne finds that he faces both very powerful enemies and betrayal.

Production
The 2001 video game Max Payne was optioned by the production company Collision Entertainment to produce a live-action film adaptation. By April 2002, distributors Dimension Films and Abandon Entertainment were attached to the project. Shawn Ryan, the creator of the television series The Shield, was hired to write a script for the planned film. By June 2005, without production starting, Collision Entertainment had taken the project to 20th Century Fox. In November 2007, with a script written by Beau Thorne, Fox announced John Moore as the director and Mark Wahlberg as the star in the titular role.
Filming began in Toronto on March 2, 2008 and wrapped by May 9, 2008. The film will be rated PG-13 in the United States, a departure from the M-rated video game series. Mila Kunis said of the tone-down, "It's incredibly dark. You still get the gist of it. The only difference between R-rated and PG-13 is you might not see as much blood. You might not see blood squirting everywhere, but as far as the sadness and the darkness of it and the distraught [nature] of these human beings is very much captured in the film."
Though filmed with the intention of receiving a PG-13 rating, Max Payne received an unofficial R rating by the MPAA on September 5th 2008, which resulted in a backlash from Moore.
On September 22, 2008, a recent trailer confirmed a PG-13 rating, "for violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality and brief strong language." Director John Moore confirmed in an interview with GameDaily's John Gaudiosi that the film was awarded the PG-13 rating without any major changes being made to the film. Describing the re-editing process Moore stated, "We trimmed some frames more for the sake of trimming frames than anything, but we got the rating without any major changes at all." The film was given the 15 rating in the United Kingdom, for "strong violence".