Over the summer, the casting for David O. Russell’s next film, The Silver Linings Playbook, started to shape up nicely, with Jennifer Lawrence cast in the female lead and Bradley Cooper filling the male lead after Mark Wahlberg had to exit the project.

Now comes the news that Jacki Weaver, the Oscar-nominated domineering matriarch from last year’s Animal Kingdom, is in negotiations to board the project too as the (presumably much nicer) mother of Bradley Cooper’s character, THR report.

The Silver Linings Playbook is about a,

“former high school teacher (Cooper) who is institutionalized for depression and is released from a health facility determined to find the silver linings in his life. He tries to win back his ex-wife but becomes involved with an eccentric neighbor (Lawrence) with problems of her own.

Weaver will play Cooper’s mother, who takes care of him.”

I was lucky enough to catch the Australian Animal Kingdom last year whilst it was playing in cinemas here, and Weaver really was brilliant in it, and certainly deserved her nomination at the Oscars for what was a truly remarkable performance. So let’s hope negotiations go well for her, and her recognition in Hollywood should continue to rise in the years to come.

Along with Cooper, Lawrence, and now hopefully Weaver, Cooper’s Limitless co-star Robert De Niro is also a part of this project, in a currently unknown role, so the casting for this really has just been getting brilliant in the past few months. Production is set to begin this autumn, and with a little bit of luck, we might just get to see it on the big screen before the end of next year.