Scarlett Johansson In Talks For David O. Russell’s ‘Old St. Louis’
We only just heard aboutOld St. Louis, the film that now looks to beDavid O. Russell’s next afterThe Fighter.Vince Vaughnis set to star in the film and there was talk of interest inChloe Moretzto play his daughter. (No actual word on that latter casting, however, so don’t get too attached to that idea just yet.)
NowScarlett Johanssonis likely to sign on to be the female lead.
Vulturesays Johansson would be Vaughn’s " paramour, a secretary who accompanies them on their cross-country sales jaunt." The ‘them’ in that sentence is the father-daughter pair to be played by Vaughn and whatever young actress does eventually sign on. Recall the logline from our first piece about the film, which said that Vaugn is “a traveling salesman who has been an absentee father, and how his life changes when his daughter becomes part of his life.”
Vulture also has some more details on the film, which were thin when it was first announced. It’s not an original Russell script, for one. Apparently it’s been kicking around for a few years, and was originally calledToy Menwhen it looked like Columbia might make it. Multiple writers have had a crack at rewriting.Steve Pink(High Fidelitywriter andHot Tub Time Machinedirector) andAllen Loeb(writer ofWall Street: Money Never Sleeps) both did work at one point.
But the site does say that the new title and current script credit for David O. Russell are a result of the fact that " it’s been so thoroughly rewritten by Russell." So that hopefully puts it squarely back in his wheelhouse. As I said when first covering this, I’m fairly interested to see him return to the sort of work that really made his name in the first place.
