Christian Bale Joins Mark Wahlberg on The Fighter

The long-gestating film, The Fighter, is finally in fighting shape. Mark Wahlberg has been attached to the project pretty much forever while everyone else associated with the film has moved on (including Matt Damon). Now it looks as though the main players are all but set in stone according to Variety, with Christian Bale co-starring in the film and David O. Russell at the helm. Russell replaces Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) who had been attached to direct for a while now. When I spoke to Aronofsky late last year for The Wrestler, he talked about the difficulties of getting the film made: "The Fighter is this great script that has such complicated issues and problems that it's just ridiculous that that is so hard to make." Aronofsky also told me in our exclusive interview that as far as he knew, rumors of Brad Pitt's association with the film were just that - rumors. "Pitt was never attached, that was just another internet nonsense thing. The internet stuff is all over the place," said Aronofsky in our December 2008 interview.

Variety says Relativity Media will be financing the film which is expected to begin shooting this July. The Fighter is the story of 'Irish' Micky Ward, a junior welterweight boxer whose brother - an ex-fighter who got mixed up in drugs and spent time in jail - helped train him for some of his best known fights. Wahlberg, who's been training for the part for years, will play Micky Ward. Bale will play Micky's brother, Dickie Eklund.
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