Penang got its Hollywood moment starting July 10, when production began on The Big Fix, a Netflix crime thriller centred on an Interpol officer uncovering a global match fixing network tied to football. Malay Mail confirmed sightings of Mark Wahlberg filming across several Penang locations, including Lorong Kulit, City Stadium, Batu Kawan Stadium and Macallum Field, in a shoot that ran roughly two weeks before the production packed up and moved on, with the wider film, which also shot in Sydney, still without a confirmed release date.
Who Else Is In It
The cast lined up alongside Wahlberg includes British actor Riz Ahmed, Singapore's Chin Han, India's Vipin Sharma, and Malaysia based actress Nuha Jes Izman, giving the production a genuinely international spread that matches its plot about a football corruption network spanning multiple countries.
Wahlberg's Own Reaction
The Star reported that Wahlberg posted directly to Instagram during the shoot, writing "Happy Sunday, brother. God bless you. Stay prayed up, from Malaysia," alongside visiting the Church of Divine Mercy while in the state, a detail that quickly circulated among local fans excited to see a global star engaging with Penang beyond the closed film set.
Why Local Officials Are Happy About This
Penang Island City Council's mayor confirmed the shoot directly, and Finas chairman Hans Isaac verified the production's presence in the country, both signals that this was not a quiet, low-profile shoot but one the state is actively pleased to have attached to Penang's name. International productions choosing Malaysia as a filming location carry real value beyond the immediate economic activity, functioning as a form of tourism marketing that money alone struggles to buy.
The Tourism Math Behind the Excitement
Coverage from FTN News framed the shoot explicitly as a travel industry moment, the kind of international production presence that tourism boards spend years and considerable budgets trying to manufacture through campaigns and partnerships. Getting it organically, through an A-list actor's own Instagram account reaching millions of followers, is exposure no paid campaign can fully replicate. Finas chairman Hans Isaac's public confirmation of the production suggests the industry body sees this as exactly the kind of high-profile shoot Malaysia's film incentives are meant to attract more of.
What Happens Now
Cast and crew have since moved on and the cordoned streets are back to normal, but while it lasted, the lighting towers and camera rigs drew crowds of onlookers filming their own footage for social media, generating a wave of secondhand content that outlived the shoot itself. No release date has been set for The Big Fix, so Penang's payoff for now is the exposure it already banked, not a premiere to look forward to yet. Whether the film lands well critically once it does reach Netflix, the state has already gotten its moment in front of a global audience.
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