Anthony Michael Hall will give Steve Carell a helping hand in Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher,” the Annapurna Pictures drama that co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum.
Written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, pic is based on the true story of John du Pont, the paranoid schizophrenic heir to the du Pont chemical fortune who built a wrestling training facility called Team Foxcatcher on his Pennsylvania estate. Ruffalo will play Olympic grappler Dave Schultz, a longtime friend of du Pont who had repeatedly tried to help him before du Pont shot and killed him in 1996. Police never established a motive for the crime.
Carell will play du Pont, while Hall will play his assistant.
In what Tatum has called “the hardest acting challenge I’ve had to date,” the “Magic Mike” star will play Mark Schultz, David’s younger brother who was also an Olympic champion wrestler. Sienna Miller will co-star as Ruffalo’s wife.
Annapurna topper Megan Ellison is financing the long-gestating pic, which she’ll produce with Anthony Bregman and Miller. Tom Heller and Michael Coleman will exec produce. Production starts later this month in Pittsburgh.
Hall, who starred in the ’80s comedy classics “Vacation,” “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Weird Science,” has done plenty of dramatic work over the years, including “Edward Scissorhands,” “Six Degrees of Separation” and “The Caveman’s Valentine.” Thesp recently appeared in Christopher Nolan’s billion-dollar grosser “The Dark Knight” and will next be seen in the indie pic “Sexy Evil Genius” with Seth Green and Katee Sackhoff. He’s repped by Innovative Artists and MBST Entertainment.
