The director of 2013’s “Out of the Furnace” also directed the Oscar-winning film “Crazy Heart.” Scott Cooper directed both films, making “Crazy Heart” his feature-film directorial debut before he made the darker crime drama “Out of the Furnace.”
Released in 2009, “Crazy Heart” stars Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake, an aging country musician whose alcoholism and stalled career force him to reconsider his life. The film was adapted from Thomas Cobb’s 1987 novel and drew inspiration from the world of traditional country music.
“Crazy Heart” won two Academy Awards at the 82nd Oscars in 2010. Jeff Bridges won Best Actor for his performance, while “The Weary Kind,” written by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett, won Best Original Song. A common mix-up is to identify “Out of the Furnace” as Cooper’s first film; it was actually his second feature as director. Another nearby fact readers may ask about is whether Cooper won an Oscar personally: the film’s awards went to Bridges and the songwriters, not to Cooper.