Amy Adams to join Wahlberg, Bale in "Fighter"

Amy Adams arrives for the movie premiere of ''Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,'' at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington May 14, 2009.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Amy Adams is in final negotiations to star opposite Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg in the boxing-themed true-life drama "The Fighter."

David O. Russell ("Three Kings," "I Heart Huckabees") is directing the feature for Relativity Media, and Paramount Pictures will distribute the film domestically.

The movie revolves around boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his trainer half-brother Dick Eklund (Bale), chronicling their early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., through Eklund's battle with drugs and Ward's eventual world championship.

Adams will play Charlene, a tough bartender and former college high-jumper who dates Mickey.

Melissa Leo has been cast as the mother of the two central characters.

Adams next appears opposite Meryl Streep in Nora Ephron's "Julie & Julia," which opens August 7. The actress, now onscreen as Amelia Earhart in "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," has wrapped production on Anand Tucker's romantic comedy "Leap Year."

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)