The Fighter director David O. Russell is negotiating with Fox Searchlight to helm a biopic of B-movie legend Russ Meyer, Deadline reports.
The script is to be written by Merritt Johnson, who was Russell’s assistant on Three Kings and the writer of the well-received HBO original film Temple Grandin. Johnson also wrote Lovelace, the still-in-development biopic of porn star Linda Lovelace, revolving around her relationship with her husband Chuck Traynor – James Franco and Kate Hudson are reportedly eying the leads for that film, which is not the Lovelace film Lindsey Lohan was to star in before her seemingly never-ending legal woes.
Meyer, who died in 2004 at the age of 82, was the director of such B-movie classics as Faster, Pusscat! Kill! Kill!
and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (which was co-written by Roger Ebert). The bio would be based on Jimmy McDonough‘s book Big Bosoms And Square Jaws: The Biography Of Russ Meyer, King Of The Sex Film, and the rights for that are still being wrangled over. Meyer’s films invariably featured over-the-top violence, graphic (for their time) sexual content, and tough broads with big boobs. His influence is all over Tarantino & Rodriguez‘s Grindhouse, and his shadow still looms over modern exploitation flicks like the upcoming Howlin’ For You.
With Russell coming off Oscar nods for The Fighter – and still trying to piece together his long-unfinished comedy Nailed – he’d almost certainly get to helm this film his way… but will it happen? Is Uncharted still happening? Who knows? I’d see this one, though.
Have you seen any of Russ Meyer’s movies? What do you think of Russell helming his biopic? Which starlet’s boobs do you want to see in it?