Everyone was talking today about how Mark Wahlberg’s long-delayed boxing movie The Fighter is finally back on track now that David O. Russell has been tapped to direct and Christian Bale is set to co-star. Some have obviously noted the potential for problems during the shoot, since both new players have had their share of outbursts on film sets, but otherwise most of us are excited about Bale reteaming with the producers of 3:10 to Yuma and Russell back together with Wahlberg for their third collaboration (following the terrific Three Kings and the disappointing I Heart Huckabees).

Anyway, because I’ve been looking at viral marketing gimmicks all day long, I have a crazy idea for Paramount Pictures’ promotion of the “Irish” Mickey Ward biopic: live reality series. Let us watch as the whole thing unfolds, unedited and raw, via webcams. Will Russell and/or Bale shout at a cast or crew member? Will the film be shut down due for financial reasons (even if Reality Media has enough money, it should pretend it doesn’t, just to create drama out of Russell)? We’ll all be tuning in. And then we’ll probably also show up to see the finished product when it hits theaters, too.

Other blogger reactions to the latest Fighter news after the jump:

• Alex Billington at First Showing really wanted Darren Aronofsky to direct the film:
  

  Bale’s involvement in this is great, but David O. Russell taking over as director is not, especially in comparison to someone as exceptional as Darren Aronofsky.

  I’m guessing that The Wrestler was just too similar to The Fighter, then when they start losing actors and Aronofsky became attached to RoboCop, he eventually passed on the project…I’ve still got high hopes, as the story sounds great and the cast is incredible, but without Aronofsky, I’m just not sure if it’ll be as phenomenal as I was originally hoping.

• Mike Sampson at JoBlo brings up the potential problem of Bale and Russell working together:
  

  While this has nothing to do with anything, it’s interesting to note the teaming of Russell and Bale, two people behind the most notorious taped on-set freakouts of all time (and on a movie about fighting nonetheless).

• Rob Hunter at Film School Rejects agrees that Bale and Russell together could be trouble:
  

  People talk about the possibilities for flare-ups between Bale and Wahlberg, but I think the real powder keg would be between Bale and Russell.  Both men have well-known histories of on-set tirades (one more defensible than the other) and the two perfectionists together should be dynamite.

• Kristopher Tapley at In Contention is certainly not alone:
  

  I can’t be the only one who read the news that David O. Russell will be directing Christian Bale in his next film and thought, “Uh-oh.”

• Seth Abramovitch at Movieline thinks it “could produce the most tantrum-friendly set since Siterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,” yet it probably won’t pit the two new players against each other:
  

  But contrary to expectations, the three men will find common ground in their outsized Hollywood alpha-egos, limiting their purple-faced conniptions to one per day, as they take turns verbally degrading a rotating cast of light-tweaking D.P.s and substandard background players.

• Mark at I Watch Stuff is almost on the same page as me as far as turning this into one big viral marketing stunt:
  

  So basically they’ve abandoned the film and decided to instead make a really, really pricey viral video of some adults yelling at each other. Someone should let the boys down at Relativity know that filming a cat with an empty soda box would get the same kind of attention for a lot cheaper.

• The Playlist sees reason to believe Wahlberg will be a mediator in any ego battles on set:
  

  Wahlberg and O. Russell previously worked together on 2003’s “I Heart Huckabees” and 1999’s “Three Kings” while the actor and Bale are set to team for the upcoming “The Prisoners.” Hmm, could it be that this whole set up for ‘Fighter’ was orchestrated solely by Wahlberg?

• Helen O’Hara at Empire also gives reason why Wahlberg will be the one to straighten things out, though she doesn’t think it will even come to that:
  

  David O. Russell and Christian Bale had two of the most public on-set meltdowns in recent Hollywood history, both immortalised online, and can these two work together without The Fighter becoming an all-too-apt description of star and director? In fact, we suspect they’ll get on like a house on fire. Not in the people running & screaming & massive property damage sense though; in the sense that they’ve got so much in common they’ll be best buds by the end of day one. And since Mark Wahlberg’s been training as a boxer for two years, he shouldn’t have to worry too much even if sparks do fly, because ain’t nobody going to mess.

• Amos Barshad at Vulture notes a good reason the film will do better than the upcoming film Fighting:
  

  Wahlberg plays “Irish” Mickey Ward, an average boxer helped to glory by his ex-boxer half-brother, Dickey Eklund, a flameout ex-con who redeems himself through the training process. And throughout all the rigmarole, the movie has wisely stayed away from one thing: gerunds.