Steve Carell May Kill Channing Tatum In Bennett Miller’s ‘Foxcatcher’
At the end of September, we got word thatCapoteandMoneyballdirectorBennett Millerhad been able to reviveFoxcatcher, the film he’d been trying to make a few years ago which provided his introduction to Brad Pitt, and therefore eventually led toMoneyball. The film is a strange true-crime tale aboutJohn du Pont, the schizophrenic heir to the du Pont fortune. He ran a wrestling training center called Team Foxcatcher, and there shot and killed Olympic wrestlerDavid Schultzin 1996.
Steve Carellisset upto play du Pont, and nowChanning Tatumis in talks to play Schultz.
TheLA Timessays that unnamed execs say the deal hasn’t happened yet, but notes that Miller has quickly become known for generating Oscar talk for his lead actors — no doubt this is one reason Carell was quick to jump onto the film — and that the role would be “a more prestige spin on physical-centric parts Tatum has been known for in movies such asFightingandThe Eagle.”
We don’t have a lot more to offer as far as info goes, but we do know the script is byE. Max FryeandDan Futterman(the latter of whom scored an Oscar nomination forCapote) and tells the following tale, per Variety:
[John] du Pont built a wrestling training facility called Team Foxcatcher on his 800-acre Pennsylvania estate, where in 1996, he shot and killed Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler David Schultz. Schultz was a longtime friend of du Pont who had repeatedly tried to help him. Police never established a motive for the crime, which was witnessed by Schultz’s wife and du Pont’s head of security. After the shooting, the multi-millionaire locked himself in his mansion for two days while he negotiated with police on the telephone. Authorities turned off his power and were able to capture him when he went outside to fix his heater.
