Scarlett Johansson onboard for ‘Old St. Louis’
David O Russell's new drama comedy 'Old St Louis' is picking up steam in the casting department. Not only is Vince Vaughn a lock as producer and leading man but it seems that the steamy Scarlett Johansson has come onboard the film too.
The sexy star is said to be close to signing up to the film to play a secretary who just happens to also be the lover of Vaughn’s travelling salesman character. The divorced businessman is trying to mix his latest cross-country job trip with an attempt to reconcile with the teenage daughter that he’s rarely seen thanks to his busy schedule.
Creative Artists Agency, which reps both Johansson and Vaughn, is in the midst of raising the financing for the $20 million indie project, but we hear it’s already closing in on a deal with Universal Pictures to distribute the drama, which is expected to start shooting this October.
The film has apparently been lingering around the studios for years, with Sony setting it up a while ago as Toy Men with High Fidelity/Hot Tub Time Machine’s Steve Pink and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps’ Allen Loeb on script duties. But it never quite worked out and now, with Russell having re-written it almost completely, it’s in the middle of grabbing funding and in serious talks with Universal to get it into cinemas.