Know Your David O. Russell Film Projects That Will Probably Never Happen

More than six years passed between the releases of I Heart Huckabees and The Fighter, and it appears that David O. Russell is planning to make up for that lost time... with extreme prejudice. Since last October, the Oscar-nominated director has seen his name attached to no less than five projects, and the likelihood of them all happening with Russell in the director's chair seems remote. However! Which has the best chance of going through as planned? Movieline investigates after the jump.

1. Silver Linings Playbook

First announced: March 28, 2009

Odds of getting made: 5-1. Russell has actually been interested in adapting Matthew Quick's novel since 2008, even before The Weinstein Company made a play for the production last March. Earlier this year, it was reported that Mark Wahlberg was in talks to play the leading role -- a former high school teacher who gets released from a mental hospital after four years and tries to win back his estranged wife. Just last Friday, news broke that Russell was meeting with actresses Blake Lively, Olivia Wilde, Jennifer Lawrence and Elizabeth Banks for the female lead. Put it all together, and don't be shocked when The Silver Linings Playbook gets some big official announcement before Labor Day.

2. The Mission

First announced: June 14, 2011

Odds of happening: 15-1. As just reported by Deadline, Warner Bros. is hot on the script for The Mission -- a timely Navy SEALs-y hostage thriller about a real-life mission to free 15 hostages from the jungles of Columbia -- and the studio wants Brad Pitt to star with Russell directing. When asked about The Mission recently, Russell seemed excited: "It's very cool. It's sort of an action-drama." That said, he seemed more excited about Playbook: "It's like The Fighter -- very emotional, very intense, but also probably more comedy in it. It's about a family dealing with a lot of issue -- stuff I do good, that's in my wheelhouse."

3. The Fighter 2

First announced: Feb. 27, 2011

Odds of happening: 50-1. Technically, The Fighter 2 hasn't been officially announced by anyone other than Mark Wahlberg -- but, do you doubt Mark Wahlberg? After all, it took him years to get The Fighter made in the first place; dude is persistant! Judging from the box office success of the first film -- plus the fact that it's destined to become a TNT classic -- a sequel seems pretty legitimately possible. Whether Russell is actually involved beyond being a producer, though, remains to be seen.

4. Two Guns

First announced: June 14, 2011

Odds of happening: 65-1. Two Guns is apparently a romantic Western that Russell recently finished writing. "[It's] really, really good," he told THR. Romantic Western? True Grit might have rejuvenated the genre, but let's not get carried away.

5. Untitled Buddy Cianci Project

First announced: April 7, 2011

Odd of happening: 90-1. Another not-really-officially-announced Russell project. This one -- about former Providence mayor Buddy Cianci -- was mentioned by Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal back during the fest in April. "There's nothing signed yet, but [Russell's] amazing, and we've been talking," said Rosenthal. "He's interested enough that when he was at the Golden Globes, I was running in, and he was walking the red carpet, and he was like, 'Jane! I've got to talk to you about that Buddy movie.'" If you think that reads like the Hollywood equivalent of "the check's in the mail!" you're not alone.

6. Maleficent

First announced: April 14, 2011

Odd of happening: 150-1. Judging from Russell's comments about Uncharted, the video game adaptation he was going to direct for Sony, it seems doubtful he'd want to lay in the bed of blockbusters again. "What can I say, I waded into those waters of the tentpole movies, and I wrote what I wanted to write, and I feel like I wrote my vision," Russell told THR. "And the rest is up to those guys. I can't pick for those guys. I don't know what they want to do over there. It's just a parting of the ways creatively."

7. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

First announced: Oct. 9, 2010

Odds of happening: Off the board.