The Italian Job (2003 film) by director F. Gary Gray as "inspired by the original." Gray, Powers and Powers, and executive producer James Dyer identified the most prominent similarities as the trio of Mini Coopers used by the thieves, as well as the titular heist involving the theft of gold bullion. Some sequences of the film were storyboarded and previsualized by Gray before production began. Gray had been interested in working with Wahlberg since seeing his performance in "Boogie Nights" (1997). After reading the script for "The Italian Job", Gray contacted Wahlberg, who "fell in love with it" after reading it himself. Green was also
The Italian Job (2003 film) Writer David Twohy approached Paramount Pictures with an original screenplay entitled "The Wrecking Crew", and though the studio reportedly liked the idea, they thought it would work better as a sequel to "The Italian Job". Gray was slated to return as director, as well as most, if not all, of the original cast. At least two drafts of the script had been written by August 2007, but the project had not been greenlit. In March 2008, in an interview, Jason Statham said that "somebody should just erase it from IMDb... and put it back on there when it's fully due