David O Russell Attached To Russ Meyer Biopic

By Ben Szwediuk /

If there was one American director deserving of a well-conceived biopic it would be the late auteurist filth-wizard, Russ Meyer. Born in 1922, Meyer received his first camera when his mother pawned the wedding ring from his absent father, before learning his professional trade as a combat cameraman during World War 2. When he returned from service he went from freelance photography to working for Playboy- where he had a notorious falling out with Hef in the grotto- before making his own comic book style sexploitation satires that can now rightly be described as classics, including Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Currently, Fox Searchlight are optioning the rights to Meyer biography, Big Bosoms and Square Jaws, by Jimmy McDonough, and the project is being overseen by Merritt Johnson, long-time assistant to the (now) Oscar nominated director David O Russell. Russell is rumoured to be thoroughly behind the project, although, post-Oscar hype, he has a myriad of high-profile films in production or post-production (including a big screen version of PS3 game Uncharted to star Mark Wahlberg) which might keep him away from directing the movie.