Play Dirty: The Story So Far

If you’re a fan of Richard Stark’s Parker, you’ve probably heard of Play Dirty (2025) by now. The latest Parker adaptation has been in the works for a good number of years, and though it’s gone through a few changes since it was first announced as a Robert Downey Jr. vehicle all the way back in 2022, it’s now emerged as a straight-to-streaming flick from director Shane Black. The film stars Mark Wahlberg as Parker and LaKeith Stanfield as Grofield, and as more details come to light, it appears to have grown into a surprisingly accurate adaptation despite the modern setting.

A trailer has recently been released, along with three articles featuring various exclusives with Shane Black and Mark Wahlberg, several stills, as well as an official page on the Amazon Prime website showcasing character bios. The film is a wholly original story – the second original story Parker story in existence, after the mini comic by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips appearing in Richard Stark's Parker: The Martini Edition - Last Call – but makes reference to the events of the novels. As stated by Shane Black in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "it's an original story peppered with stuff from the entire series. There's a famous line which is right from the books where a guy says to Parker, 'Wait, don't shoot me. I'm just the messenger.' And he takes out a gun and says, 'Now you're the message,' and he shoots him. It's full of things like that, but the heist itself is something of a slightly bigger scale."

That’s supported by the trailer, which in itself contains a shocking amount of material from the Stark novels. Most obvious is LaKeith Stanfield’s Grofield, who appears in front of a barn theater at one point and is consistently framed against a theatrical-looking background.

An educated guess from what’s seen in the trailer is confirmed by the character description appearing on the Amazon Prime website, which will sound awfully familiar to any Grofield enthusiasts out there. Not only is this version of Grofield still an actor, he also remains the owner of his own struggling theater as per the novels.

Notably, this is not the first cinematic Grofield; that particular honor goes to Franco Interlenghi in Mise à Sac (1967) – a French adaptation of The Score (1964), in which the Grofield character is dubbed Maurice. That being said, Stanfield’s Grofield is the very first one to explicitly be an actor.

Other elements that stand out in the trailer are Madge’s presence – motel included – and characters like Ed & Brenda Mackey from Plunder Squad (1972), and Stan Devers from The Green Eagle Score (1967) appearing in pretty major roles.

In fact, the latter three even get character bios:

Equally encouraging is Shane Black’s dedication to keeping the tone of Richard Stark’s novels relatively intact; he told Esquire, “we want to do this gut-punch, old-school kind of storytelling."

Curiously enough, despite the concerns expressed by a multitude of fans, Mark Wahlberg also demonstrated a good understanding of the character in his interview with Entertainment Weekly: "I wanted to go for unapologetic. Here's a guy who lives in a world where hopefully you understand what the rules are and the stakes are. This is a guy who just does not compromise. He's a very loyal guy, but if you cross him, things could be dangerous, so hopefully [audiences] would understand why he was the way he was when he encountered people along the way that he wasn't so nice to. If you're loyal, he'll jump in front of a bullet for you, but if you're not, then no matter how close you think you're getting with him, it's never going to be okay."

That’s only a step away from the words Donald Westlake himself had used to describe Parker years prior when he’d called him "unfailingly loyal” to those close to him.

All in all, Play Dirty seems like a labor of love grounded in the principles of Stark’s novels. Despite the modern setting and the original story, Parker fans could easily end up with the most thrilling adaptation in decades.

Play Dirty hits streaming Oct. 1 on Prime Video.