David O. Russell Circling ‘Maleficent’, Working On Action-Drama ‘The Mission’ With Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura
David O. Russellmay haveleft behindthe video game adaptationUncharted, but the director’s not exactly wanting for new projects to work on. The latest potential additions to his slate are aLorenzo di Bonaventura-produced action film titledThe Mission, and Disney’sSleeping BeautyretellingMaleficent. (In fact, the latter is likely the reason Russell was allegedlymeetingwith starAngelina Jolielast week — Russ called it when he expressed his skepticism that Jolie would be interested in theSilver Liningsfemale lead.)
Oh yeah, and that’s in addition toThe Silver Linings Playbookand a handful of other projects he’s been linked to previously. The man has been keeping himself very, very busy. More details after the jump.
Warner Bros. has acquired an untitled action thriller pitch about the rescue of 15 hostages from the Colombian jungle last summer… The film will focus on Operacion Jaque, a five-year plan to locate and rescue three Americans who had been captured in 2003 by Colombian guerilla group FARC. The covert effort involved numerous governments, diplomats and intelligence services and a vast network of spies, military advisers and soldiers plus high-tech surveillance measures.
Di Bonaventura is the producer of such action flicks asRed,Salt, and theTransformerstrilogy, so he and Russell may seem like a bit of an odd fit. However, the director’s proved to be fairly versatile over the years, so if the project interests him, I look forward to seeing what he makes of it.
I’m even more intrigued by the idea of Russell directingMaleficent, which has been searching for a new director since Tim Burtonwalked awayfrom the project last month. Russell’s involvement is far from a sure thing —The Hollywood Reporteris careful to note that there are still several other names circling the project as well. (Including, perhaps,Darren Aronofsky.) Jolie has been solidlyattachedto the title role since last year. The live-action movie, which retells the classic Sleeping Beauty story from the perspective of the villainous “Mistress of All Evil,” is scripted byAlice in WonderlandwriterLinda Woolverton.
Russell doesn’t strike me as the expected choice for the project, but that seems like a good thing. Russell’s clearly got the drive and the chops to make a familiar property his own — after all, that’s why he leftUncharted— and he’s demonstrated his knack for mixing comedy and drama several times over. In his hands,Maleficientcould turn out to be something unique and different from your typical Disney film.
That is, if we ever get to see it at all. The one thing that’s tempering my enthusiasm for both of these projects is the sheer number ofotherprojects Russell is associated with at the moment. In addition to these two films andThe Silver Linings Playbook, Russell’s also been working on a script for a romantic Western titledTwo Guns, and he’s been attached to aRuss Meyer biopicsince earlier this spring. Plus, there’s thatThe Fightersequel Mark Wahlberg’s beentalkingabout, for which Russellhas saidhe’d like to write the script. While I’d love to see any and all of these films, there are only so many hours in the day, and days in the year. No matter how hard Russell’s working, I’m guessing he’ll eventually have to ditch at least some of these projects.
Discuss:Which upcoming Russell projects are you excited about? Do you think Russell is a good choice to tackleMaleficentandThe Mission?
