David O. Russell combines some of his Silver Linings Playbook cast (Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro) with some of his The Fighter cast (Amy Adams, Christian Bale) in his latest film, American Hustle, and here is the very first trailer to prove it, courtesy of ABC.
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo playerAlong for the ride are Jeremy Renner, Louis C.K. and Michael Peña. De Niro and Louis C.K. don't make it into this teaser, but here's hoping they're wearing some eye-catching toupees in the next one.
A* loosely* truth-based tale of an FBI sting operation that took down some high-profile US government types, American Hustle was originally called American Bullshit when it was at number eight on 2010's Black List list of the best unproduced screenplays.
The film finds Christian Bale as Irving Rosenfeld, a Bronx-raised con man who raises the suspicion of driven FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper, looking for all the world like he borrowed Hangover director Todd Phillips' style from his Barry cameos).
Under threat of prison, DiMaso forces Rosenfeld and his lover/accomplice Sydney (Amy Adams) to work up the Abscam sting, which saw a US senator and five congressmen convicted on corruption charges. "That era was very much like our era now," says Russell. "The economy was not in a good place and people had to struggle to figure out how to reinvent themselves."
Reinvent themselves, you say? That probably explains the wigs then. American Hustle will arrive in US cinemas on December 25 before hopping across the pond to launch here on Boxing Day.