Did Entourage Predict The Future Of Hollywood?

Entourage, the tv show loosely based on the life of Mark Wahlberg, featuring a group of bros doing things that bros would do if one of those bros was rich and famous. It had some great cameos from A-list actors and other actors who weren’t famous enough to play themselves. If, like me, you loved this show, then you spent a good few conversations trying to defend the openly misogynistic male bravado of every storyline by saying it’s really about friendship. Love it or hate it, everyone agrees that it gave Jeremy Piven the opportunity to play one of TV’s best characters, Ari Gold.

That’s about all there is to this fun show…or is it?  (cue the dramatic music)

Could there be more to Entourage than meets the eye? Is there something deeper to all the sex, drugs and Ari-Gold-isms?

Allow me to break it down for you:

Season 1 starts with Vinnie Chase enjoying the success of his last film Queens Boulevard. This leads him to get the lead role in a new blockbuster film based on a comic book. The joke at the time was that no one would ever make a comic book film unless it was based on either Batman, Superman or Spiderman. Batman Begins was dominating the screens at this time but who did Vinnie Chase play in his comic book film? None other than AQUAMAN.

That was in 2005. Aquaman will be in his own film on our screens in 2018.

Then Vinnie Chase takes on a little pet project, the Pablo Escobar film, Medellin. Sure it fails in the end but again, Entourage took Pablo Escobar mainstream when nobody else was touching the source material in real life. 

That was in 2007. Narcos became a mainstream Netflix series 10 years later.

In season 5, Vinnie takes on a role in Smoke Jumpers, a film about firefighters battling a wildfire in a forest in Arizona.

In 2017, we will see Granite Mountain on our screens. IMDB says the film is, “A drama based on the elite crew of men who battled a wildfire in Prescott Arizona.”

In Entourage, Smoke Jumpers was cancelled during production because Vinnie had creative differences with his director. This led him to take the role of Nick Carraway in a re-envisioned version of The Great Gatsby. This season aired in 2008.  

In 2013, Tobey Maguire played Nick Carraway in a re-envisioned version of The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo Dicaprio.

In the Entourage movie (2015), Vinnie makes his directorial debut in Hyde, a film about EDM culture. This year Netflix released a film about EDM culture called XOXO. Sure, lots of films have been made about EDM culture but Entourage has been getting it right every time so far.

A little more? Ok. 

In season 6, Vinnie Chase gets to play Enzo Ferrari in a film about his life. Check IMDB and see for yourself. Enzo Ferrari film in production for release 2018.

Is Hollywood copying Entourage? Is life imitating art? Who knows?

Maybe Mark Wahlberg has all the answers.

That is all.

Ramz