In a surprising move that has quietly put Georgetown on one of Hollywood’s biggest call sheets, Hype Malaysia can confirm that principal photography on Netflix’s highly anticipated thriller “The Big Fix” was extended to Penang, marking what appears to be the first time the production has been publicly confirmed outside of its announced Sydney base.
Mark Wahlberg (“Transformers: Age of Extinction,” “The Departed”) and Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal,” “Venom”), the film’s two leads, were both present and active on set in the Malaysian UNESCO World Heritage city on Saturday (11th July 2026). We were there on the ground as we witnessed the production across both days of filming firsthand.
Production was first observed at Jawi Peranakan Mansion on Friday (10th July 2026), before the cameras moved to the iconic Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion — widely known as the Blue Mansion — later that same day, with a full crew and barricaded set visible at both locations.
The following day, cameras relocated to the vicinity of Lebuh Melayu, Georgetown, where we sighted both Wahlberg and Ahmed on set, with Kormákur overseeing the shoot in person. The continuity of the shoot across two consecutive days and multiple Georgetown locations suggests this is not a brief second-unit detour, but a substantive leg of the production’s globe-trotting itinerary.
According to the New Straits Times, Penang Island City Council mayor Datuk A. Rajendran has confirmed that filming began on Friday and is expected to continue for approximately two weeks, with production taking place across several locations including Lorong Kulit, City Stadium, Batu Kawan Stadium, and Macallum Field, among others.
The production is being coordinated locally by Biscuit Films, who were previously involved in the filming of Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts with Florence Pugh in Kuala Lumpur.
In the online space, the production’s arrival in Penang did not go unnoticed by locals. A video shared by Facebook page Rakyat E-Hailing MY showing Wahlberg on location, standing beside a silver Perodua Kelisa, surrounded by production vehicles and crew, went viral over the weekend, sending Malaysian netizens into a collective frenzy.
“The Big Fix” — directed by Kormákur (“Everest”, “Apex”) from a screenplay by Guy Bolton (“Hijack”) and Justin Haythe (“Revolutionary Road”) — is inspired by a true story and adapted from Brett Forrest’s book of the same name. The film follows a former Interpol officer who has taken up a bureaucratic enforcement role at FIFA, only to find himself at the centre of a sprawling international match-fixing conspiracy.
What begins as an institutional investigation rapidly metastasises into a high-stakes personal pursuit, drawing him into confrontation with a charismatic and ruthless fixer operating in the shadows of the world’s most widely followed sport.
The move to Georgetown is not without narrative logic. “The Big Fix” is, at its core, a story about the criminal underbelly of Southeast Asia. For a production with the ambition and resources of this one, the decision to bring cast and crew to Penang speaks to a commitment to authenticity that will likely be felt on screen.
That Southeast Asian specificity runs deep into the casting as well. Singaporean actor Chin Han is slated to portray Dan Tan, one of the notorious figures at the heart of the match-fixing network.
It remains to be seen whether the scenes filmed here serve as a surrogate for Singapore, or whether the filmmakers wanted the broader regional texture that a city like Penang uniquely provides. Either way, the choice of location is unlikely to be accidental.
Wahlberg portrays a character inspired by Chris Eaton, the real-life former police officer who served as FIFA’s top enforcement agent and whose dogged efforts to dismantle the match-fixing network were repeatedly stymied by the sport’s governing bureaucracy.
Ahmed takes on the role drawn from Raj Perumal, widely considered the most prolific match-fixer in the history of football. Perumal, who is currently incarcerated, orchestrated a network that spanned multiple continents and operated in collusion with Chinese Triad syndicates, engineering the outcomes of matches across the world for tens of millions of dollars in illicit gains.
Besides Chin Han, the supporting ensemble is equally formidable, with Zlatko Burić, Natalie Dormer, Bobo Le, Paul G. Raymond, Nuha Jes Izman, Vipin Sharma, Susan Lynch, Gabriel Leone, and Rameez Ahmed rounding out a cast that reflects the international sweep of the story itself. The film is produced by Peter Chernin and David Ready for Chernin Entertainment, alongside Kormákur and Samantha Nisenboim, with Bennett Walsh, Chris Eaton, and Jenno Topping serving as executive producers.
Principal photography officially commenced in Sydney, New South Wales, on 28th April 2026. “The Big Fix” does not yet have a confirmed release date. Given the current production timeline, a mid-to-late 2027 arrival on Netflix is the most probable window.
