Vince Vaughn and David O. Russell Heading To "Old St. Louis"

In one of the more odd-pairings of actor and director in recent years, TOLDJA! is reporting Vince Vaughn (The Breakup, Wedding Crashers) and David O. Russell (Three Kings, upcoming The Fighter) are said to coming aboard Universal’s Old St. Louis.  The film, written by Russell, is set around a traveling salesman father (Vaughn) who has been absent from his daughter’s life only to find redemption when he starts to spend time with her.

After weeks of talks, it is looking like Vince Vaughn and director David O. Russell are likely to team on Old St. Louis, a script written by Russell. The discussions have the film landing at Universal, which would co-finance and distribute. The film will be produced by Vaughn and sister Victoria Vaughn through their Universal-based Wild West Picture Show Productions.

Old St. Louis is the story of a traveling salesman who has been an absentee father, and how his life changes when his daughter becomes part of his life. Vaughn would play the salesman, and actresses including Kick-Ass star Chloe Moretz have been mentioned as possibles to play the daughter. I'm told Russell would like to make the film his followup to The Fighter, the film that stars Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams, with Paramount distributing the Relativity Media/Mandeville co-production.

CAA, which reps both Vaughn and Russell, continue to work to tie down the rights, but I hear it's going to happen. Vaughn has been starring with Kevin James in What You Don't Know, an Allan Loeb-scripted comedy about infidelity that Ron Howard is directing for Universal. Vaughn is producing with Imagine's Brian Grazer.

I don’t know about you, but I’m actually interested to see this.  Vaughn has been stuck in comedies for years so it’s nice to see him getting back to his dramatic roots.  See A Cool, Dry Place or Return to Paradise,  he’s fantastic.  Russell on the hand…what can be said about this guy?  He’s made some interesting films in his career (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees) yet has been known to be a difficult to work with.  With that said though, I’m beyond pumped to see The Fighter.  Let’s see where this goes.