‘The Low Dweller’ Gets Taken ‘Out of the Furnace’ by Scott Cooper

Three years after landing in the top 5 of the Black List’s best unproduced scripts of 2008 survey, The Low Dwellers has legs again, as well as a new name: Out of the Furnace. Scott Cooper, who brought Crazy Heart out of its own snags in the optioning stages, will helm the project – just as soon as he finishes rewriting Brad Inglesby’s script. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way is still among the producers (as are Relativity, Scott Free Productions, and Energy Entertainment), though he is no longer expected to act in it, as he was back when Rupert Wyatt was on board to helm. Cooper has about a gajillion possible films that he could make next, so who knows where Furnace sits in the queue (hopefully ahead of the entirely unnecessary Carancho remake). We’ll likely be waiting a bit to find out, as this is obviously a very fickle stage of the development timeline.

Gist: In the mid-80s, a man named Slim, just released from an Indiana prison, is trying to assimilate into society, and marry his girlfriend after all those lost years. News about his brother, though, turns his agenda in another direction; one of a vengeful nature. Those who’ve read the most recent drafts of the script liken it to the bleak and existential No Country For Old Men.

Worth Noting: After the completion of Butter, The Oranges, and The Beaver, this would be the fourth of the 2008 Black List top 5 to actually get made, should things continue in the current momentum. That would only leave Michael Gilio’s Big Hole in the unmade pile.

Do We Care?: Scott Cooper is definitely a name to watch. Crazy Heart was well directed and had a rough edge that would gel nicely with this grim tale. The talent behind every aspect of this production is a tour de force, so it will likely ended up as a big player in the fall awards campaigns of whatever year it surfaces.