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'Avengers' star Mark Ruffalo joins Carell, Tatum in 'Foxcatcher'

Actor to play a wrestler in true-crime drama from 'Moneyball' director

By HitFix Staff Tuesday, Apr 17, 2012 2:23 AM

<p>Mark Ruffalo walks the red-carpet at the world premiere of "The Avengers" last week.</p>

Mark Ruffalo walks the red-carpet at the world premiere of "The Avengers" last week.

Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles

While Mark Ruffalo will soon be seen smashing through buildings and fighting off Loki's armies as The Hulk in Marvel's upcoming superhero blockbuster "The Avengers", the actor has just signed on to play a real-life bruiser in an upcoming true-crime drama from "Moneyball" director Bennett Miller.

Titled "Foxcatcher", the film will depict the tragic friendship that developed between John du Pont (Steve Carell), heir to the Du Pont chemical fortune, and freestyle wrestler Dave Schultz (Ruffalo), who won an Olympic gold medal in 1984.

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The title of the film comes from du Pont's Team Foxcatcher, a training facility for amateur wrestlers the multimillionaire had built on the grounds of his Pennsylvania estate in the late 1980s. His interest in the sport led to a friendship with Schultz, who served as coach for Team Foxcatcher before the paranoid-schizophrenic du Pont shot and killed him in the driveway of the wrestler's home in 1996. Du Pont was later found guilty of third-degree murder and sentenced to 13 to 30 years in prison, where he died in 2010 at the age of 72.

In addition to Carell and Ruffalo, the ubiquitous Channing Tatum ("21 Jump Street", "G.I. Joe: Retaliation", "Magic Mike") previously signed on to star in the role of Schultz's younger brother Mark Schultz, also an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling.

Production on the film is scheduled to begin this October in Pittsburgh from a script by E. Max Frye ("Band of Brothers") and Dan Futterman ("Capote").

The news was broken by Variety.

Is anyone reading familiar with the case? Think Ruffalo is a good choice for the role of Schultz? Sound off in the comments...

Related Searches: Foxcatcher, Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Bennett Miller, David Schultz, John du Pont
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