Aside from being a pretty good director, David O. Russell has two main claims to fame: calling Lily Tomlin a c*nt, and always casting Mark Wahlberg in his movies (all of them since Three Kings — Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees, and The Fighter). While he’ll always be the Lily Tomlin-c*nt guy, the latter has reportedly changed, and if TheWrap is to be believed, Marky Mark is none to pleased about it.
Hollywood heavyweight [and real-life welterweight -Ed.] Mark Wahlberg has fallen out with his buddy director David O. Russell over the director’s decision to cast someone else in the lead of his new film, “The Silver Linings Playbook,” according to two individuals with knowledge of the relationship.
What, ah you too good fa Maahk Wahlberg now, cawksuckah? I FACKIN MADE YOU!
“They went with Brad Cooper because they felt he was hungrier and would work for cheaper,” Matt Muzio, Russell’s cousin and frequent collaborator, told TheWrap.
Muzio also fell out with the director recently, but said he was with Russell this summer on Martha’s Vineyard when the decision was made. Another individual close to Wahlberg confirmed the information.
BRADLEY FACKIN’ COOPAH? YOAH GONNA BURN ME FOAH THAT PRETTY FACKIN’ BLUE-EYED MAWMMA’S BOY? …I shoulda known you’d do me just like ya done yoah cousin, Matty da Wawp.
Wahlberg’s deal provided that he was to be paid an additional $900,000 if Anne Hathaway fell out of the project, according to two individuals with knowledge of the deal. Hathaway did indeed drop out, making Cooper the less expensive option to Wahlberg.
Wahlberg was paid a fee anyway, though another executive said it was because of his creative contribution to the Weinstein Co. project.
The decision to cast Cooper surprised Muzio and others because Wahlberg has been one of Russell’s most loyal friends in Hollywood, bringing him in on his pet project, “The Fighter,” after years of Russell being sidelined.
“If it weren’t for ‘The Fighter,’ ‘Silver Linings’ wouldn’t exist,” Muzio said.
Yeah, and if it weren’t for David O. Russell, The Fighter probably wouldn’t have been any good, so…
In “Silver Linings,” which started shooting last week, Cooper plays Pat Peoples, a teacher who after spending years in a mental institution, moves back in with his mother and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Wahlberg had been attached to the role for the better part of this year.
The all-star cast of the Weinstein film also includes Robert De Niro, who plays an “ambling, lunatic father.” Jackie Weaver plays the mother, and Jennifer Lawrence is the ex-wife.
This may be the unpopular opinion, but I like Mark Wahlberg better as an actor. Brad Cooper is charming and dreamy and his eyes make me think of summers in the Mediterranean, but he’s also kind of boring and waspy. With Wahlberg, you never know when he might flip out and beat up a Korean grocer, which is part of the fun.
According to an individual close to the actor, Wahlberg is so upset about it that he and Russell are no longer speaking.
Wahlberg is trying to put together “The Fighter 2” and, as someone in his camp said, “If we get “Fighter 2” off the ground, it won’t be with David Russell.” [TheWrap]
And by “someone in his camp,” I assume they mean “Charlie Pickles from Wahlburgers.” “Fack that queah, Maahky! He don’t deserve ta wash yoah jawkstrap. Around these pahts, we believe in a little something cawled loyalty.”