David O. Russell looking to write sequel to The Fighter?

I was surprised when Mark Wahlberg started chirping about a possible sequel to The Fighter, his Oscar nominated sports drama covering the early career of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have been, since one of the things I really wanted to see in the film was never covered. That of course being Ward's three awesome fights with Arturo Gatti beginning in 2002. I count a couple of those as arguably the two best fights I've ever seen, and for awhile there I was quite the boxing aficionado.

Wahlberg has stated he wants everybody to return if a sequel ever develops, especially his two Oscar winning co-stars: Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.  But what about director David O. Russell? Would he come back? During an interview with MTV. O. Russell made it clear he'd be happy to return for another round...


O. Russell: "I think that would be awesome.I just love those characters and I think we could do a lot of fun and interesting stuff."

But is he just talking about directing? O. Russell is used to helming movies based on his own scripts, which he didn't do for the first time with The Fighter.

O. Russell:  "I would do it whenever anyone says they're ready. I'm ready to write it."

If it turns out that the sequel does take place and it covers the Ward-Gatti brawls, it would make the film much more action heavy than the previous one. Not that I'm complaining. Those three fights are what I like to refer to as "phone booth battles", with both Ward and Gatti slugging it out within a few inches of eachother's face. Powerful and dramatic stuff that must've taken one heck of a toll on Ward and his family. O. Russell seems to agree...

O. Russell: "I think Micky's story has a lot of heart whichever way you cut it. You'd go towards the Gatti fights and you could go into the history of the family more. I really like the sisters."