Posts Tagged ‘David O. Russell’

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Bradley Cooper And Jennifer Lawrence To Reteam In “Serena” ?

Hopefully you like the chemistry Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence display onscreen in “The Silver Linings Playbook”! The pair of seemingly mismatched onscreen paramours will team again for an adaptation of “Serena,” a 2008 novel about timber magnates and their iron-fisted rule of North Carolina. Based on Ron Rash’s book, “Serena” follows George and Serena Pemberton (Cooper and Lawrence), a pair of young newlyweds who turn “War of the Roses” on each other when Serena finds out she can’t have children of her own; an issue complicated by the fact that George has an illegitimate son. Cooper and Lawrence will be seen together onscreen this November in “Playbook,” an adaption of Matthew Quick’s quirky novel about a recently released mental patient (Cooper) and the girl who lives next door to his mother, which is directed by David O. Russell.

http://news.moviefone.com/2012/01/30/lawrence_n_1242684.html

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Weaver In Negotiations To Join “Silver Linings” (Everything Will Probably Work Out)

Jacki Weaver, is in negotiations to join the cast of “The Silver Linings Playbook,” the romantic comedy David O. Russell is directing for the Weinstein Co. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are starring in the film, about a  former high school teacher (Cooper) who is institutionalized for depression and is released from a health facility determined to find the silver linings in his life. Weaver will play Cooper’s mother, who takes care of him.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscar-nominated-animal-kingdom-actress-240203

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

“The Fighter” Follow-Up Seeks Female Lead. The Usual Suspects Headline List

The next few days may very well determine which actress gets the golden ticket to star in “The Silver Linings Playbook,” director David O Russell’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning comeback film, “The Fighter.” The Weinstein Co. movie again reteams Russell with his “Fighter” star Mark Wahlberg in the story of a man who suffers from a mental collapse and is released from a health facility determined to find the silver linings in his life. According to insiders, Russell is intensely screen-testing the following in-demand actresses in Los Angeles starting today and going into the weekend: Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Blake Lively, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams, Andrea Riseborough and Olivia Wilde.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/david-o-russell-testing-actresses-205062

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Yet Another Project Finds David O. Russell Attached To It

Tim Burton was all set as director of a live-action “Sleeping Beauty” that’s told from the point of the view of the evil Maleficent, but now that he’s left the project, the latest director mentioned to take over is … David O. Russell? Fairy tales plus the gritty realism of “The Fighter” doesn’t exactly sound like a match made in heaven. Despite the director shuffle, Angelina Jolie presumably remains on board as the magnificently evil fairy Maleficent, who, in the classic Disney version, plots little Princess Aurora’s doom, puts Prince Philip in chains and transforms into a scary, fire-breathing dragon. In other words, she’s one of the greatest Disney villains of all time.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/06/15/david-o-russell-sleeping-beauty/

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

David O. Russell Zooming In On “Maleficent”

David O. Russell has surfaced as one of the directors circling Disney’s fantasy “Maleficent,” from scribe Linda Woolverton. Angelina Jolie has long been attached to star as the titular character in the event pic. Tim Burton exited the project earlier this year, opening up the director’s spot. Russell is among those now being considered to helm the pic, but insiders stressed there are other names in the mix as well.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-o-russell-circling-disneys-201411

Monday, June 6th, 2011

The Weinstein Co. Has A New Vice President Of Production

The Weinstein Co. has hired Leah Holzer as vice president of production, it was announced Monday. Holzer will report to president of production Donna Gigliotti, in New York. In her new position, Holzer will help manage physical production of such projects as David O. Russell’s comedy “The Silver Linings Playbook” and Kenneth Branagh’s “The Boys in the Boat,” based on the nonfiction book by Daniel James Brown centered on the University of Washington’s rowing team.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/weinstein-taps-leah-holzer-as-195128

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Another Writer Gets Infected By “Zombies”

Marti Noxon is moving from vampires to zombies. The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” writer and producer — and “Fright Night” and “I Am Number Four” writer — has written a draft of Lionsgate’s “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” Director Craig Gillespie signed onto the project in April, so it makes sense that he’d want a new draft to better match his vision. And he directed Noxon’s “Fright Night.” Several writers have written drafts, including David O. Russell and Michael Bacall.

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/pride-prejudice-and-zombies-gets-new-writer-marti-noxon-27839

Saturday, May 28th, 2011

Two Major Hollywood Projects, Two New Director Openings

Hollywood deserters: David O. Russell has left Sony’s “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” and Albert Hughes has exited the helm of Warner Bros.’ live-action remake of the Japanese manga project “Akira.” The reasons given for both: the standard “creative differences.” It seemed that Russell was pretty keen on ‘Uncharted’ — based on a PlayStation 3 video game — and he was set to write and direct the adaptation. A lot of names had been attached to the project, among them Mark Wahlberg, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro, but nothing was finalized and with Russell gone, the studio will most likely start from scratch. Meanwhile, Hughes had been working for a year on “Akira,” the big-screen take on the 1988 animated cult classic that was having difficulty getting off the ground. Warners had put together a list of actors for the two leads in the story about the leader of a motorcycle gang in a futuristic New Manhattan who tries to save his friend from a medical experiment, but then changed its mind, wanted a big-name star in the film, and offered a role to Keanu Reeves, who passed on it. Now the studio has back pedaled to the first plan, and Hughes has walked (though he will co-produce with brother Allen). Just another day in Tinseltown.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/05/27/uncharted-akira-lose-directors-elijah-wood-keeps-busy/

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Could Searchlight and David O. Russell Be Making a Russ Meyer Movie?

Fox Searchlight is looking at a pitch package that would have David O. Russell directing the Russ Meyer story — depending on whether or not the studio can get the rights to the Jimmy McDonough book “Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film” — with a script by Merritt Johnson, who co-wrote the HBO telepic “Temple Grandin” and penned “Lovelace,” the “Deep Throat” star Linda Lovelace bio. Meyer was a true auteur — he produced, wrote, directed, edited, photographed and distributed all his films — and packed away millions of dollars on exploitation flicks (like, for instance, “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”) made on shoestring budgets.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/03/18/david-o-russell-russ-meyer-story/

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Who Wants More Fighters? Mark Wahlberg Does!

Everyone loves a story about the underdog winning against all odds, and last year’s Academy Award–winning “The Fighter” fit the bill. The film triumphed over its own set of struggles, with Mark Wahlberg determined to see the project through for years before the film won Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale) and Best Supporting Actress (Melissa Leo) and made over $100 million worldwide at the box office. Now the actor is talking about possibly filming round two of the Micky Ward boxing tale. Though the film was met with critical acclaim for its performances, many were left wondering why director David O. Russell didn’t include the legendary trilogy with Arturo Gatti (“Ward’s final fights”), since the brutal series was the most lucrative of Ward’s career. A sequel gives Wahlberg the chance to highlight this and expound upon the friendship that grew between the two opponents until Gatti’s strange death in 2009. No confirmation yet if Bale, Leo and Adams will be joining Wahlberg for a possible sequel.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/03/15/mark-wahlberg-the-fighter-2/

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

David O. Russell Takes Aim At “2 Guns”

David O. Russell is in negotiations to come on board to rewrite and direct “2 Guns,” Universal’s adaptation of a Boom! Studios comic book. The studio picked up the project in August 2008 as a vehicle for Vince Vaughn, who is attached to star in the story of a DEA agent and an undercover Naval Intelligence officer who are unwittingly investigating each other and who steal mob money for the good guys. They realize later that the mob actually got them to steal $50 million from the CIA.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/heat-vision/david-o-russell-drawing-2-70955

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

Russell Gets His Game On, to Helm “Fortune”

David O. Russell has closed a deal to write and direct “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” an adaptation of the 2007 PlayStation 3 video game, for Columbia Pictures. Back in May, Russell first flirted with the project, but then moved on to develop a big-screen adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” But his quest to direct the PS3 game adaptation pulled him back in, leaving “Zombies,” for the moment, undead. In the mold of epic adventure films like “Tomb Raider” and “Indiana Jones,” the “Uncharted” game’s storyline follows a descendant of Sir Francis Drake, Nathan Drake, as he searches for the treasure of El Dorado on a desert island with a friend and a female journalist. The game itself was developed by Naughty Dog and is one of Sony Computer Entertainment’s best-selling games for the PS3.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3if7958560d10cc4f3f1e8f255f75faeb3

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Scarlett Is Going to Meet Vince in “St. Louis”

Actress Scarlett Johansson, who won a Tony earlier this summer for her performance in the play “A View From the Bridge,” is reportedly in talks to join the cast of “Old St. Louis,” a $20 million indie from David O. Russell. She’ll be playing Vince Vaughn’s love interest in the film, about a divorced traveling toy salesmen who rekindles his relationship with his teen daughter.

http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2010/08/05/scarlett-johansson-old-st-louis-vince-vaughn/

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

David O. Russell + Vince Vaughn = Movie We Will Pay to See

After “weeks of talks,” Vince Vaughn and helmer David O. Russell are close to an agreement to team up for “Old St. Louis,” a new script written by the director himself. Set up at Universal, the film details “the story of a traveling salesman who has been an absentee father, and how his life changes when his daughter becomes part of his life.” Naturally, Vaughn would play the father, while a number of actresses are being considered for his young offspring — including the increasingly popular Chloe Moretz. The plan is to make this the follow-up to “The Fighter,” Russell’s much-anticipated bio pic of fighter Mickey Ward, starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale.

http://www.cinematical.com/2010/07/29/david-o-russell-teams-with-vince-vaughn-for-old-st-louis/

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

David O. Russell No Longer to Helm “Nailed”

Add another nail in the coffin of the long-delayed political satire/romantic comedy “Nailed,” starring Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal, which will be finished without the involvement of writer-director David O. Russell. Russell has withdrawn from the $26 million production after one-on-one negotiations with financier Ronald Tutor, who controls rights to the movie with Pangea Media Group CEO David Bergstein, broke down. Neither Tutor nor Russell would go into detail about why they could not come to an agreement, but Russell apparently was not happy that producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher of Red Wagon Prods. were being squeezed to cut their fees in half.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i2a62321a15dd65d884ac0d2a50e68bb6

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Is David O. Russell Going to Direct a Video Game Movie?

Hollywood is looking to bring a little arthouse class to its video game movies. David O. Russell (“I Heart Huckabees”) is in early talks to direct the film adaptation of the popular video game, “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.” The highly acclaimed game, released by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2007, has players in the shoes of a descendant of Sir Francis Drake as he searches for the lost treasure of El Dorado. A sequel, “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves,” was released in 2009.

http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2010/05/05/david-o-russell-may-direct-uncharted-drakes-fortune/

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Syfy Headed to “Outer Space” for New Comedy

Syfy is expanding its comedy block with the premiere of five-episode comedy series “Outer Space Astronauts.” The half-hour show, which combines live-action and 2D and 3D animation technology, will debut Dec. 8, leading into the season finale of hit reality series “Scare Tactics.” “Astronauts,” from creator/exec producer Russell Barrett and exec producers David O. Russell and Scott Puckett, is a futuristic comedy about eight military misfits who journey to the far reaches of the galaxy on board the O.S.S. Oklahoma.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ia626985c88bb687255ababc36e00ea47