Jonathan Demme's ``The Truth About Charlie'' sounds like ``The Trouble With Harry,'' Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 comic thriller about an errant corpse. But that doesn't tell the whole story. ``The Truth About Charlie'' is an update of Stanley Donen's Hitchcock-influenced, Paris-set bonbon ``Charade'' (1963). Demme's new version is for lovers of Hitchcock, the French New Wave and the immortalized-on-film city of Paris.

Notably, Demme's star rose on the wings of a similarly stylized hybrid of comic romance and violence, the 1986 hit ``Something Wild.'' Of course, there is one stumbling block when updating ``Charade.'' However lightweight the original, it co-starred Cary Grant, the suavest, most debonair man in film history, sporting his steel gray hair like a badge of honor, and a stunning, much younger Audrey Hepburn as a couple thrown together by chance and held in place by sexual attraction.

Demme's film, which he co-wrote with Jessica Bendinger (``Sex and the City''), Steve Schmidt and Peter Joshua, rather too flippantly offers action hero Mark Wahlberg in the Grant role of a cosmopolitan American trying to help a young widow, and Thandie Newton (of Demme's ``Beloved'') as the widow. And if its leads do not possess the stature of their predecessors, Wahlberg is game, and Newton possesses a decidedly Hepburnesque mix of gamine charm and sexy form and features. In fact, Demme comes closer than any of her previous directors, including Bernardo Bertolucci and Demme himself, in drawing that sexy sprightliness out of her.

Newton is Regina ``Reggie'' Lambert, an adorable, rather obtuse English widow whose French husband turns out not to be the man she thought he was, literally. Arriving in a distinctly hip, multicultural, modern-day Paris in order to divorce her husband Charles, Reggie finds that he has been killed and she herself high on the list of suspects as far as the hard-nosed female inspector (Christine Boisson) on the case is concerned.

Wahlberg is Joshua Peters, a hunky, French-speaking American in a beret who gallantly offers to help the gorgeous Reggie through her hard times, especially after three tough ex-military types - Il-Sang Lee (South Korean action star Joong-Hoon Park), Emil Zadapec (Ted Levine who played Jame Gumb in Demme's ``The Silence of the Lambs'') and Lola Jansco (Lisa Gay Hamilton of Demme's ``Beloved'') - start grilling her about her husband's hidden fortune, a fortune hidden even from her. Also involved is a mysterious American diplomat (Tim Robbins in the role played by the great Walter Matthau) also trolling for the money.

Like the original, ``The Truth About Charlie'' is a genre-hopping romp full of winks and nudges, twisty turns, marvelous location photography and romance (Demme adds a fantastically eclectic score). In his defense, Wahlberg evokes some of the raffish charm of Jean-Paul Belmondo of Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave landmark ``Breathless.'' The film seems to have been a lark to make, although as Steven Soderbergh's recent ``Full Frontal'' showed, having fun on the set is beside the point.

But there's nothing wrong with playfulness in a film. In a scene set in a morgue, the point of view is the corpse's. The leads find lodging in the Hotel Langlois, which may be just another name for the Cinemateque Francaise. Among other noteworthy locations captured by cinematographer Tak Fujimoto are Montmartre, the Eurostar tunnel train, the labyrinthine flea markets at Clignancourt and the Pont des Arts. Say the words ``Charles Aznavour'' - star of ``Shoot the Piano Player'' - in this film, and he is likely to pop up out of thin air and croon a tune. We may even visit Francois Truffaut's grave at Le Pere Lachaise.

And, yes, that is Godard's muse Anna Karina singing about the ``devil of deception'' in a Paris nightclub and New Wave director Agnes Varda (``Cleo From 5 to 7,'' ``Lola'') as the Widow Hyppolite. More than anything else, ``The Truth About Charlie'' is Demme's valentine to the artists who have made the City of Lights the spiritual capital of film.

The truth about "The Truth About Charlie" is that it is easier to sympathize with the reasons director Jonathan Demme decided to make it than to actually enjoy the film that resulted.

After a series of features ("The Silence of the Lambs," "Philadelphia," "Beloved") that were everything but lighthearted, Demme was clearly ready for something different.

A fan of Stanley Donen's slick, Paris-based, 1963 romantic thriller "Charade" as well as of the French New Wave filmmakers who were working in the city then, Demme decided to restore himself by remaking the former in the style of the latter.

Why not hang out in Paris, the most pleasant of cities, and, while you're at it, why not put in all kinds of film-buff references, like naming a hotel after Cinemathèque Française founder Henri Langlois, convincing New Wave veterans Agnes Varda and Anna Karina to make cameos, even inducing the iconic Charles Aznavour to sing his own songs. And why not turn the whole thing into a valentine for "Beloved" co-star Thandie Newton, a beautiful actress Demme clearly has a talent crush on. Even serious directors deserve to have some fun.

Unhappily, although Demme likely did have fun, too little of that carries over to the audience side of the ledger. "The Truth About Charlie" is excessively clever and minimally charming, so eager to demonstrate its undeniable cinematic skills that it ends up outsmarting itself, showing off for its own pleasure when it should be trying to satisfy the rest of us.

"Charlie" relies overly much on razzle-dazzle not just because it doesn't have "Charade's" Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant to fall back on. It's also because this kind of playful trifle is much harder to execute successfully than it may appear. Despite using four screenwriters (Demme, Steve Schmidt, "Charade" writer Peter Stone using the pseudonym Peter Joshua and Jessica Bendinger), "Charlie" has the kinds of problems with tone and likability that did not plague the original.

Newton plays Regina Lambert, returning to Paris after a Martinique vacation. She's determined to leave the rakish Charles Lambert (Stephen Dillane), her husband of but three months. Divorce, however, proves not to be an option, as Charles has had the misfortune to be murdered on a train.

Even for a bride of three months, Regina turns out to know surprisingly little about the deceased. She thinks Charles is a Swiss art dealer, but when the French police show her a "Bourne Identity" variety of passports belonging to him, she's completely at a loss.

Throwing her even more is that a sinister trio begins following her around Paris, apparently seeking the millions that the French police inform her vanished into the air when her husband was killed. "I do seem to be caught in a terrible mess," Regina says at one point, underlining the obvious.

Because she's lost, beautiful and the possible key to a whole lot of money, two men offer their assistance. Joshua Peters (Mark Wahlberg in the Grant role) is so omnipresent and so cheerfully helpful that it will be a given to everyone but Regina that he's not what he seems. More buttoned-down is Mr. Bartholomew (Tim Robbins channeling the original's Walter Matthau), a U.S. Embassy operative who places a premium on secrecy.

Newton, in the part "Charlie" is built around, acquits herself reasonably well as the attractive epitome of "decency, dignity and gumption," but her classy appeal is not strong enough for a film with the kind of excessive plot shenanigans this one prides itself on.

Inevitably serving as "Charlie's" main point of interest is the dazzling camera work, hand-held in the best New Wave tradition, by Demme's longtime cinematographer Tak Fujimoto. Fujimoto is a master at creating stylish visuals and his views of off-the-beaten-track Paris are arresting, but this, too, is not enough.

For the reality is that "Charlie's" flashy look and unconvincingly glib attitude eventually turns into as much of an irritant as an attraction, prejudicing us against a project we should be loving if only for its wonderfully eclectic soundtrack, featuring artists from Malcolm McLaren and Cornershop to Angélique Kidjo and Manu Chao.

Neither the script nor the direction nor the acting has been able to make these characters into ones we want to invest ourselves in. "The Truth About Charlie" is one very busy film, but it's really not going anywhere.

For ''The Truth About Charlie,'' director Jonathan Demme takes us with him to Paris, eager to show us this city he adores. His love letter is so sloppy with passion you can barely make out the handwriting. This is Demme's first major movie since 1998's ''Beloved,'' and it's messy in the best and worst ways - tremendously vivid but narratively overwrought. 

"Charlie" is a remix of Stanley Donen's 1963 Hitchcock riff "Charade," in which Cary Grant nearly had a coronary gawking at Audrey Hepburn as he tried to shake her down. What we have in Demme's version is a director so happy to be playing with upbeat material - not the cannibals of ''The Silence of the Lambs'' or the Reconstruction-era ghosts of ''Beloved'' - that he can hardly think straight.

The new film actually breaks down into two movies. The better one turns Paris into an incredible, up-to-the-minute party where white people are a minority and culture is global in a way rarely seen in American movies. This cross-cultural fiesta is hitched to a formula chase picture, whose plot particulars, after two viewings, are still vague.

Maybe the first time you'll be too taken with the film's energy to let it get you down. Or, like Grant with Hepburn in Donen's original, you might be too busy going weak in the knees over the daffy cygnet Thandie Newton to raise much of a fuss.

Newton, an African-Brit, slips easily into Hepburn's flats. The actress, who starred for Demme in ''Beloved,'' here plays Regina Lambert, a London sophisticate about to divorce her art-dealer husband, Charlie. By the time she's worked up the nerve, he's dead, their Paris apartment has been ransacked, and a number of well-dressed, shady-looking people are insisting she hand over the $1.8 million they say he stole.

Regina knows nothing of it. But in one neat sequence, the widow does learn that her husband had liquidated his assets and had more aliases than rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard. That information comes courtesy of the thoroughly odd Commandant Dominique (the excellent Christine Boisson), the detective heading the investigation. 

The most tactful and handsome person in Regina's corner is the gentleman staying in the luxury hotel she's just checked into. He's the helpful American who accosted her while she was vacationing in Martinique and later happened to bump into her at the de Gaulle airport. His name is Joshua Peters, and he's played by Mark Wahlberg, who steps in for Grant and, on more than one occasion, wears a black beret.

This is disconcerting, like putting whipped cream on a beer. But Wahlberg doesn't need to be Grant, whose brand of swank would be sorely misplaced in this movie's roughneck vibe. 

Obviously, Joshua is not to be trusted. But his diction is so crisp, and his French is so - well, it's less good but charming nonetheless, in a low, sweaty, porn-actor sort of way. Regardless, you're waiting for the other Gucci shoe to drop. Before it does, Joshua serenades Regina with a Charles Aznavour ballad. Demme, sparing no surreal expense, has Aznavour himself drop by to induce swooning.

At this point in the film, Regina's head must be throbbing. She's being hounded by three thugs, played, in ascending order of freaky intensity, by Joong- Hoon Park, Lisa Gay Hamilton, and Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill in ''Silence of the Lambs''). And a bizarre Yank from the ''Office of Defense Cooperation'' (Tim Robbins) has told her to keep her eyes peeled for details about Charlie. 

The movie becomes a game of ''Whom Should Regina Trust?'' But the closer you get to sorting out the truth, the less likely you are to believe it, let alone comprehend it. The latter half of this movie is as outlandish as a Mexican soap opera.

But Demme's multicultural intoxication holds ''Charlie'' together. He seems to have been away from the present so long, he's jolted alive by how it's changed. His trademark static, into-the-camera conversations now swing right and left. The format veers back and forth between film and digital video, while the soundtrack and Rachel Portman's score are a United Nations mix tape. 

Should any thriller be this exuberant? 

It's nice to know Jonathan Demme got Stanley Donen's blessing to remake "Charade," the 1963 classic that starred Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, and you have to give Demme credit: "The Truth About Charlie" spotlights a Paris that pulsates with rhythm, danger and memorable faces. 
This isn't the spare, touristic Paris of Donen's imagination but a bustling, multicultural metropolis that becomes much more central to the mystery that unfolds before our eyes. 

In both films, a young Parisian named Regina returns from vacation to discover that her husband has been killed -- and that he left behind stolen riches that are coveted by his former friends. Thandie Newton plays the Hepburn character, a beautiful woman who was clueless about her husband's secret past and now falls in love with the man (Mark Wahlberg, in the Grant role) who protects her from pursuers, while also coveting her clandestine wealth. 

Wahlberg was laudable in films such as "Boogie Nights," where he got to show off his manliness and musculature, but in "The Truth About Charlie," he's woefully miscast as the bilingual, beret-wearing American who shadows Newton's every move. 

His acting is bland and pedestrian. When he speaks French, it sounds as if he's reading off a script sheet. Joie de vivre? He has none -- nor nuance. It's virtually impossible to believe that Newton's sultry, energetic character would fall so instantly for such a small (literally and figuratively) man -- and, unfortunately, their relationship drives the film from beginning to end. (Demme's original choice for Wahlberg's role was reportedly Will Smith, who had to drop out because of "Ali.") 

On the positive side, the supporting cast is formidable, the intriguing premise of "Charade" is intact and the gritty, rainy Paris that Demme captures is a pleasure. French actress Christine Boisson (who steals every scene she's in) plays a detective who investigates the death of Charles Lambert. With her assistant (Simon Abkarian), she presses Regina for answers and gets enough to be convinced that she wasn't the one who killed her husband. 

Did Wahlberg's character do it? Was it one of the three military figures who, we learn in flashback, schemed with Charles Lambert to hide priceless diamonds and now want their payoff? In the beginning, it seems the only person Regina can trust is a Mr. Bartholomew (Tim Robbins), a U.S. official in Paris who warns her about the ex-military figures. Like "Charade," "The Truth About Charlie" involves a search for the riches and a denouement that features a sudden realization and a mad scramble for the liquidated assets (which in this remake are worth a cool $6 million). 

Fans of "Charade" -- a seamless thriller that also starred Walter Matthau, James Coburn and George Kennedy -- will chafe at many of the liberties that Demme has taken, but younger moviegoers who've never seen the original may embrace the handheld camera shots, slow-motion sequences, bloody action scenes and eclectic music that dominates much of "The Truth About Charlie." While Henry Mancini scored "Charade," such world music stars as Natacha Atlas, Cheb Khaled and Rachid Taha contributed haunting, spirited songs to "The Truth About Charlie" -- songs that Demme uses to create moods that match Newton's occasionally flummoxed character. 

Newton is no Hepburn, but at least she has a presence that draws on different emotions and lets her character experience everything from dread to resolve to love. Her kissing is more passionate than Wahlberg's and her French is flawless compared with his. Newton is an actress of promise who has worked with Demme before (on "Beloved") and in "Mission: Impossible 2," James Ivory's "Jefferson in Paris" and Bernardo Bertolucci's "Besieged." 

In the end, the city of Paris is one of the revelations in Demme's film. Africans, Arabs, Asians and other ethnic groups that make up much of the present-day city are seen throughout "The Truth About Charlie," and the director's interesting camera work makes it thrilling to see the Eiffel Tower and other Paris landmarks. Still, the unfortunate truth about "The Truth About Charlie" is that it's a sometimes interesting remake that doesn't compare to the brilliant original. . This film contains violence, nudity and strong language. 

Comparisons are sadly inevitable. Mark Wahlberg is no Cary Grant, even if he has better abs. When Thandie Newton, in the Audrey Hepburn role in this remake of "Charade," hands Wahlberg that famous line, "You know what's wrong with you? Absolutely nothing!," you may feel an obligation to speak up.

Undoubtedly, Jonathan Demme knew what he was getting into when he decided to turn Stanley Donen's 1963 romantic thriller into "The Truth About Charlie."

Movie lovers, on whom this update depends to catch the New Wave cinema in-jokes, remember "Charade" too fondly to allow variations on the theme. Even if they don't recall the particulars, they surely remember Grant and Hepburn gliding through a light roundelay of deception and intrigue like Astaire and Rogers.

The meltingly beautiful Newton gives a solid performance, but she and Wahlberg do not glide like Astaire and Rogers, to put it delicately. Wahlberg, an actor with as-yet undetermined quantities of promise and limitation, gives a one-note performance as a man with several false identities, including the "Charlie" of the title.

Who can you trust, baby? Regina Lambert (Thandie Newton) is about to divorce her art-dealer husband, but Charlie Lambert (Stephen Dillane) is murdered and their Paris apartment emptied and trashed before she can break the news to him. The dead man has bequeathed a legacy of double-crossings and shady dealings, as well as a missing fortune that has attracted the attention of the local police, a U.S. government agent (Tim Robbins) and a trio of sinister stalkers.

And whassup with Reggie's new friend, Joshua Peters (Wahlberg), who is always on hand with a baguette, a warm shoulder and a Charles Aznavour CD? In his jaunty beret and bad French, Joshua is perhaps too dependable for comfort.

Demme jumps through hoops to create this Euro-flavored thriller, using a panoply of French New Wave techniques to keep the audience as off-balance as the characters.

When Reggie and Joshua meet, seemingly by coincidence, the camera whirls around them, stirring excitement and confusion. When the camera is not whirling, the actors are - on a Ferris wheel or in an impressionistic, expositional tango.

There are other camera techniques that become intrusive rather than enlightening. Everyone stares at Reggie, a technique that worked well in Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs" when it was limited to underscoring Jodie Foster's status as outsider, newbie, female. Here, the camera can't seem to tear itself away from any face that happens by. The effect is anxiety-producing rather than the fun it seems to promise.

The movie is dedicated to Demme's nephew, the late director Ted Demme. But the parting shot of Francois Truffaut's flower-strewn grave is the key to the heart of "Charlie," with its jump cuts, hand-held camera, off-kilter compositions and mini-brainteasers.

"Charade" was not as perfect a confection as people remember it - it had its share of clunky bits, like James Coburn's unforgivable Texas accent. But the lilting dynamic between those icons of sophistication, Grant and Hepburn, remains inimitable and indelible. May that legacy rest in peace. 

There are two ways to watch Jonathan Demme's chic little thriller "The Truth About Charlie," and only one is disappointing. As a remake of the practically perfect 1963 Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn classic "Charade," it falls short — how could it not? But as an exercise in style, and an homage to '60s cinema, it hums along nicely. 

In fact, the less familiar you are with "Charade," the better "Charlie" probably works. You won't be distracted by counting up, for example, the many ways in which Mark Wahlberg is not Cary Grant. It's unfair to compare — nobody is Cary Grant these days, although "Gosford Park's" Clive Owen could probably make a decent run at it — but a remake raises the question. 

Wahlberg is cheerful and handsome, like a slightly more rugged Matt Damon, but he can't quite pull off debonair, despite a hard-working costume department. (It should be noted, though, that even Grant would probably have looked silly in a beret.) 

More successful is Thandie Newton (the Audi TT driver in "Mission: Impossible II"). She has a Hepburn-esque fragility, elegant posture and genuine charm. In one tipsy scene, she yawns daintily and giggles, stealing Wahlberg's heart as well as those of countless audience members; in another, she wears tiny earrings that look like ladybugs, giving her a fresh-from-the-garden appeal. 

Demme, who co-wrote the screenplay, keeps fairly close to the 1963 version: Regina (Newton) is an unhappy young wife who returns home to Paris to find her apartment empty, her husband dead, a handful of stylish thugs seeking the money he left behind, and a helpful stranger named Joshua (Wahlberg) who may not be what he seems. And "Charade" aficionados will recognize the corpse-eye-view morgue shot, the cage-like hotel elevator, and the immortal Audrey Hepburn line, "You know what's wrong with you? Nothing." 

But the chemistry between Demme's leads feels off, due in part to the decision not to have Regina fling herself at Joshua. (Hepburn's wide-eyed enthrallment with a not-yet-smitten Grant — "How do you shave in there?," she murmurs, a finger stroking the cleft in his chin — was enchanting.) Wahlberg instead is the one who falls, but he's just not lovestruck enough to register. But "Charlie" is not so much romantic thriller as visual pastiche, and Demme has filled his supporting cast with wondrous faces. 

Among them are dark-eyed French actress Christine Boisson, gazing over the collar of her Burberry raincoat, as the whip-smart police inspector; Ted Levine (Jame Gumb from "The Silence of the Lambs") as a hypochondriac hood with an over-the-top howl; and Korean star Joong-Hoon Park, making a chilly English-language debut. 

And French-cinema icons Anna Karina, Agnès Varda, Magali Noël and Charles Aznavour — who sings the movie to a close — make elegant appearances. 

"Charade" was magic; "Charlie" isn't, but it's a pleasant Paris-flavored treat, beret or no. 

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or [email protected]. 

THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE 
A mere trifle. 

STANLEY Donen's "Charade," the classic Paris-set 1962 romantic thriller with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, has been accurately described as the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made. 

There's little danger this label will be applied to Jonathan Demme's entertaining but instantly forgettable remake, "The Truth About Charlie" - his first film since the unfortunate "Beloved" five years ago. 

The new movie's modest aspirations appear to be limited to paying a respectful homage to the original, as well as a handful of French New Wave films of the '60s. 

Set in the multicultural Paris of today, this version stars the very appealing British actress Thandie Newton ("Mission Impossible: 2") filling Hepburn's old stilettos as Regina, who returns home from vacation to discover her husband has been murdered and the contents of her apartment are missing. 

Helping her sort out the puzzle is the enigmatic Joshua Peters (Mark Wahlberg, who is no Cary Grant, to put it mildly), whom she met on vacation - and who seems to be acquainted with tthree shady business associates of her late husband, who are dying to get their hands on the $3 million he had in his possession. 

Also figuring quite prominently is Bartholomew, a mysterious American official played by Tim Robbins, who has a great deal of flamboyant fun in the part originally played by Walter Matthau. 

Demme retains the bare bones of Peter Stone's original plot, here and there rearranging and updating the numerous twists and turns - nowhere near as fresh as they were 40 years ago. 

The three World War II vets who were the heavies in the original (James Coburn, Arthur Kennedy and Ned Glass) are now a rainbow coalition of crooks consisting of black lesbian Lisa Gay Hamilton, Korean comic Joong-Hoon Park and Ted Levine, Buffalo Bill of Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs." 

They are nowhere near as interesting, and the plot frequently lurches to a stop for appearances by such iconic New Wave figures as Charles Aznavour and Anna Karina, both of whom contribute musical numbers, and director Agnes Varda. 

It's still quite watchable, even if there is little chemistry between the lovingly photographed Newton - who more than holds her own - and Wahlberg, whose idea of enigmatic is to play Joshua as an absolute blank. 

"The Truth About Charlie" does briefly sizzle in the scenes between Newton and French actress Christine Boisson, as the bisexual French police commander assigned to the case. 

By taking on the Cary Grant role in Friday's ``The Truth About Charlie,'' a remake of 1963's ``Charade,'' Mark Wahlberg confirms his transition from Calvin Klein-underwear-clad rapper to Hollywood heavyweight.

After all, Grant was the master of suave understatement, an eternally elegant Hollywood legend whose comic timing and effortless charm made generations of women swoon.

``Cary Grant is great in everything,'' Wahlberg said. ``He's Cary Grant, you know. It's the same thing in every movie he's done.''

Wahlberg, who won over critics with his charisma and surprising emotional depth in ``Boogie Nights'' and ``Three Kings,'' dismissed the notion he feels pressured by any comparisons. ``I mean we were going in a completely opposite direction,'' he said. ``My character was so different.''

Indeed, ``Charlie'' is no ``Charade'' - intentionally so, says writer-director Jonathan Demme (``The Silence of the Lambs''). It was merely the pretext to do a light, fun film in Paris (where the original is set) and spotlight the winsome charms of Demme's star Thandie Newton (``Beloved''). She plays the Audrey Hepburn role of a chic widow besieged by a cadre of crooks out to find the loot her husband stole and stashed.

Wahlberg was Demme's second choice for the Grant part. ``Jonathan went to Will Smith first and then Will Smith (stunk),'' he said, laughing. ``I didn't know that until after I shot the movie. I thought that maybe it was a joke.''

Speaking of jokes, in the film, the Dorchester native wears a beatnik beret and turtleneck and, in another scene, a fedora and trench coat.

``Mark is playing real good in the test screenings I've seen,'' Demme said. ``Some audiences, the moment you see him putting his beret on, it's a big laugh - and Mark Wahlberg in Paris is already a stretch. And he's speaking French to the desk clerk - and it's another big laugh. For me there's a lot of fun seeing this fish out of water.''

Demme added that he modeled Wahlberg's wardrobe on France's legendary '60s New Wave star Jean-Paul Belmondo, who first made the trench coat and fedora famous in ``Breathless.''

Wahlberg thought he was just paying homage to his director. ``I don't know if you have seen any pictures of Jonathan on the set,'' he said, laughing again, ``but Jonathan had on the beret and the scarf, and whatever he wanted me to do, I did. I was solely there to serve Jonathan's vision - even wearing the beret and a turtleneck. But I was actually comfortable in anything, because when I'm on the set, I'm committed to something so it doesn't really matter what I'm wearing or what I look like.''

``Charlie'' follows Wahlberg's 2001 box-office hit, ``Planet of the Apes,'' in which he stepped into Charlton Heston's shoes - and drew mostly critical brickbats in Tim Burton's lavish remake. Wahlberg voices no regrets. 

``It was a great decision for me, because I had an amazing experience with Tim,'' he said. ``You know, the finished product is the finished product. I let it all go when I wrap; my job is done. I don't choose my movies by how I think they are going to be perceived or how they are going to perform at the box office. When I do that, I'll probably be making my own films. I'm still trying to grow as an actor. I've still got a lot to learn.'' 

Considering his choices, Wahlberg could be crowned the Remake King of Hollywood. He's now filming his third consecutive reworking of a classic, this time the Italian-set comic heist fable ``The Italian Job,'' which starred Michael Caine. 

``That's a remake but it's not supposed to be called a remake,'' he said wryly. ``It's quite a bit different. I play the Caine role and Edward Norton ended up playing the bad guy.''

As for this run of ``reworkings,'' he said, ``You know, there are very few original stories out there. It's always kind of the same story anyway; it's just how it's told. No one has really reinvented the wheel yet.'' 

That said, he added he's set to do ``an extremely original'' picture that will reunite him with ``Three Kings'' writer-director David O. Russell. 

``Oh, God, it's the most amazing script I've ever read in my life,'' he said. ``He wrote it for me and I'm very excited about it. We're going to start in January.''

Wahlberg is mum on the film's plot. ``David made me come to his house and read the script,'' he said. ``He's real secretive about it. But it's incredible.''