Though Scott Cooper hasn't actually gotten to work on a follow-up to his debut feature Crazy Heart--which netted Jeff Bridges an Oscar, as you probably remember-- his name has been popping up so often you might think he had. There was the news that he was considering a Hatfields and McCoys movie, and he was consistently in the running to direct Tales From The Gangster Squad, a period crime drama that both Ben Affleck and Darren Aronofsky considered and passed on.
Since the latest word on Gangster Squad was that Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer was the leading contender, it's no surprise to see that Cooper has moved on to something new. Deadline reports that he's attached to direct a remake of Carancho, the Argentinean film submitted as the country's attempt this year at the Best Foreign Language Oscar. Aaron Stockard adapted the script, a thriller about an ambulance chaser lawyer who both helps accident victims and skims the proceeds from their lawsuits. There's a love story in there too, plus a large-scale conspiracy-- in short, a much, much larger story than what Cooper tackled in Crazy Heart.
Actor-turned-director Cooper has been consistently showing interest in projects that are a major step up in difficulty from the small-scale Crazy Heart, and it'll be interesting to see him tackle a story as massive as Carancho (which translates in English to Vulture, though who knows what they'll call it in the end). The original Argentinean film hits theaters early next year if you want an early idea of what to expect.
