Christian Bale was last seen in theaters saving Gotham City, but now that he’s officially done with that, he can move on to more adventurous material. The Oscar winner’s next film is Out of the Furnace, which teams him with Woody Harrelson and Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper.
“You often find superheroic people wearing capes and costumes in film today,” Cooper told USA Today, which published the first photos from the film. “"But working-class Americans are the real heroes. This is the story of this man who works in a blast furnace, but with themes of justice, retribution and courage.”
Cooper certainly knows about gritty characters, having directed Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning performance in 2009’s Crazy Heart. The actor played a drunk country singer trying to make a comeback.
In Out of the Furnace, Bale is Russell Baze, who works with Harrelson’s local criminal to find his brother, an Iraq war veteran. Casey Affleck plays Russell’s brother. The rest of the cast includes Forest Whitaker, WIllem Dafoe, Sam Shepard and Zoe Saldana.
Bale says that Russell is definitely not your typical action hero. “Russell is not of that personality, nor does he wish to be,” the Dark Knight actor said. “But he finds himself having to confront these people in order to do the right thing. He's only got his own fortitude and will power, nothing else.”
According to Comingsoon.net, the film will be released on Nov. 27 and expand nationally on Dec. 6.
images: Kerry Hayes, Relativity Media/USA Today