Here’s your first look at Mark Wahlberg and Melissa Leo on the set of David O. Russell’s boxing picture, “The Fighter.” Back in the day, the film was once set to star Brad Pitt and Matt Damon and to be directed by Darren Aronofsky who developed the picture for years before leaving it earlier this year.
Obviously, there’s more pictures of Christian Bale too who looks slightly less cracked-out than the last set of photos that were revealed. Wahlberg looks appropriately buff, he’s been training for the film, on and off for two years.
The film centers on the lives and boxing careers of half-brothers ‘Irish’ Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) a junior welterweight boxing legend from Massachusetts and Dickie Eklund (Bale)— who becomes his brother’s trainer and mentor after his career went off track thanks to a debilitating drug addiction. Leo plays there mother. No look at Amy Adams or Alison Folland yet, both also star in the film. [JustJared/ComingSoon]
Update: here’s an interesting DigitalSpy interview with Melissa Leo. She says O. Russell helped bring the budget down presumably changing the script in doing so. “I think [O.Russell directing the picture is] a major blessing on the film. David has worked and worked to hone this script from a 30-year story to a much less expensive to shoot three-year tale that is just all the history of them and the very complicated story of this extraordinary boxing talent. That mind of his is awesome to watch at work and he does shoot in a very [chaotic] way, you have to work very hard to stay with David, but the key to success is to trust that man, he knows what he’s doing.”
Is he as nuts as rumored? “I don’t think it’s volatility,” she said. “It’s an absolute, utter commitment to it. Filmmaking is about having a very, very clear and tidy blueprint that you can turn 180 degrees and still make it work. David is constantly flipping it 180 and that can indeed be frustrating. It’s much easier to walk a very clear, clean path, but I think it makes it a much more interesting film if you can go with your captain! These are rough seas, we’re shooting boxing matches with seven cameras going! It’s just a question of being able to keep up with him.”
Sounds like a typical David O. Russell shoot. Chaos and changes on the fly, but it’s really just the way how crew and actors adapt to it. Some fly off the handle at changes (Lily Tomlin), others, perhaps knowing now what they’re getting into, can probably hang with it a little better, but obviously people do get frustrated with this style. 2010? Surely. Oscar season 2010? Who knows, stay tuned, but this is just the beginning.
