David O. Russell(The Fighter) has officially attached himself to direct the biopic of 21-year Rhode Island Mayor Buddy Cianci. The untitled film will be based off Cianci’s autobiography Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Advised a President, Dined With Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community and Lived to Tell the Tale. Buddy Cianci made a name for himself by seeking out and eliminating corruption during his time in office, until he was arrested and sentenced to jail for racketeering.
More after the jump.
Russell is always in the news as he is now finishing up post on The Silver Linings Playbook starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, attached to direct the 1980′s undercover story American Bullshit, and has been attached and fallen out of many films of late such as Uncharted, The Fighter 2, 2 Guns, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Who knows what this guy will do next.
Synopsis for Politics and Pasta via Amazon:
“Colorful” is not a sufficient enough word to describe Buddy Cianci. The subject of a New York Times bestseller, an Emmy Award-winning documentary, and creator of Mayor’s Own Marinara sauce, Buddy is seen by many as a brilliantly successful politician and by others as a rogue.
Since his first election, Buddy rose from being the underdog to becoming the longest-serving mayor of a major American city and transforming that city into an urban model. Here he recalls elections won and lost, backroom deals and publicity catastrophes, showing how things really happen in City Hall. He also doesn’t shy away from discussing why he left office. However, he does deny the charge of assaulting his wife’s lover with a fireplace log (he never hit the man with it). And he goes into detail about the RICO conviction that ended his political career and sent him to federal prison, telling another side of the story.
Full of surprising stories and outrageous anecdotes, Politics and Pasta is a one-of-a-kind memoir by a master of the political game. Take a bit of La Guardia, a dose of Daley, and a little of Boston’s Mayor Curley and you have Buddy–master politician, master story-teller.
Producer Jane Rosenthal says Russell will “have a hand” in the script, but he’s set to direct and not write.