All had seemed more-or-less lost for the beleaguered project, but there may be a glimmer of hope for those waiting to see David O Russell's **Nailed, with the reports that a new soundtrack has been commissioned.
Production was edging towards completion in 2008, with Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Marsden, Catherine Keener and Tracy Morgan starring in the tale of a dorky receptionist (Biel) who undergoes a radical personality change when she's accidentally shot in the head with a nailgun. Heading to Washington to fight for the rights of the peculiarly injured, she falls foul of Gyllenhaal's sleazy congressman.
Russell wrote the script with Kristen Gore (daughter of Al), but production eventually shut down completely due to some back-of-house financial mismanagement, with a few scenes, including the one where Biel gets nailed in the head, not yet fully in the can. Russell officially abandoned the project last year, while incoming financier Ron Tutor, intent on damage limitation, vowed the $26m film would eventually be finished.
And it seems Tutor is as good as his word. Test screenings, confirming the film's current unreleasable state, have taken place, and now John Swihart (Youth In Revolt) has been brought in to provide new music, replacing Sam "Squeak E Clean" Spiegel, who may never have even had the opportunity to contribute a note to the proceedings.
No amount of music is going to paper over the cracks left by incomplete and missing scenes however, so it remains to be seen how Tutor plans to address his biggest problem. The stars remain contractually obliged to come back (even looking three years different), but Russell has made it clear that he's off the project completely. Will a new director fill in the gaps, or is there a way to work around them? You'll hear as soon as we do.