Director David O. Russell will be back for another awards season this year with American Hustle, his new project that is set for release right around Oscar season. The film stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams, along with Silver Lining Playbook actors Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. The first images from the film were released today.
USA Today shared two stills, both featuring Bale and his 1970s hairstyle. One has him and Cooper looking at artwork, while in the other Bale stands beside Adams in a low-cut '70s dress. The film is fictional, but based on the FBI ABSCAM operation that brought down people in the government with mob connections.
"Everybody gets to do something we've never seen before ,” Russell told the site. “That's exciting to me.”
Russell has worked with Adams and Bale before, since they were both in The Fighter and Bale even won an Oscar for that film. Jeremy Renner is making his first appearance in a Russell film.
“That era was very much like our era now," Russell said about the film's setting. "The economy was not in a good place and people had to struggle to figure out how to reinvent themselves."
Scenes were filmed in Boston in April and production was actually delayed following the Boston Marathon Bombings.
“We were shooting in an outlying area that day,” Russell recalled. “Christian Bale's wife was the first one to get through to him (on set). It was very surreal. It was very upsetting.”
American Hustle is being released by Sony's Columbia Pictures on Dec. 13 in limited theaters. It expands on Christmas Day and is expected to be in play during the Oscars.
images: USA Today/Columbia Pictures