Why bother to switch things up when working with top talent like Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro tends to lead to Academy Award nominations?  David O. Russell already has Lawrence on board for his next project, Joy, but he also just revealed that he’s going after Cooper and De Niro as well.

The film tells the true story of Joy Mangano (Lawrence), the Long Island native responsible for inventing the Miracle Mop, a mop that can be wrung without getting your hands wet.  She was a single mother just trying to get by until her mop hit it big on QVC during her on-air appearance, selling 18,000 mops in just 20 minutes.  Hit the jump for more on Joy. [Update: THR confirms that De Niro is in official talks to join the film as Mangano's father. His casting is contingent upon Lawrence's deal closing, and production is scheduled to begin in February.]

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While talking to Go (via The Playlist), Russell explained what drew him to the project and what the film is all about:

“Really they (producers) came to Jennifer Lawrence and myself.  I immediately recognized a great opportunity to do something neither Jennifer nor I have done.  It’s the story of a certain woman, what’s going on inside her from a young girl, broke, to when she becomes a bit of a mogul, a bit of a power broker.  And the people she’s surrounded by are extremely ... she has very complicated, deep, personal family relationships, which are the bane of her and the reason she is who she is.  There are great roles for other actors as well, to create a world.”

Russell also went on to express interest in making De Niro and Cooper part of the movie:

“We’re gonna take some risks we haven’t taken before, in storytelling and cinematically.  I think I’d very much like (Robert) De Niro to be in it, I think he’s gonna be in it.  And of course I always create a role for Bradley Cooper.  I try to have things people have never done.  Then they can get excited, and it’s exciting for audiences.  That’s what makes it daring in some way.”

It’s always nice to shake things up and work with new people, but when you’ve got Russell directing a project with Lawrence, Cooper and De Niro involved, who’s going to turn that down?  The combination has already worked brilliantly in American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, so if all of this does pan out, perhaps we’ll get another David O. Russell awards season run after Joy hits theaters on December 25, 2015.

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Image via Columbia Pictures