Christian Bale Steps into the Ring for ‘The Fighter’

Published by Jeff Leins on: April 21st, 2009

Over the past few years, The Fighter has attracted some of Hollywood’s top talent. The project initially kicked off with Matt Damon in Mark Wahlberg’s corner.  Damon took a hike somewhere around the writers strike and Brad Pitt stepped in for him. The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky had also been attached until recently, but with his sports drama out of the way he has moved on to other things (like a RoboCop remake).

Wahlberg has remained attached through each of the pic’s variations and has continued to stay in fighting shape for the film. He will play Boston fighter “Irish” Micky Ward, who became the world lightweight champion with the help of his half-brother, Dickie Eklund. Ward is best known for his three fights with Arturo “Thunder” Gatti. (By the way, my nickname is also Thunder)

The recent shake-up brings in Christian Bale to replace Damon/Pitt as Eklund, a man who went from boxer to struggling drug addict to prison inmate to Ward’s comeback trainer.  Either this is a great role or everyone really wants to work with Wahlberg.

According to Variety, director David O. Russell has also been hired by Relativity Media to fill in for Aronofsky. It’s an interesting choice considering Russell is best known for quirky indie comedies, but he also made Three Kings which Wahlberg starred in.

The Bale and Russell combo also sets up what could be the best set battle in the history of celebrity YouTube drama.  Of course, everyone has heard by now the “we’re done professionally” tirade from Bale on the set of Terminator Salvation.  But before that was probably my favorite set meltdown when David O. Russell engaged in a shouting match with Lily Tomlin during the filming of I Heart Huckabees. Ring the bell, let’s get this fight started.