No Rehearsals for a Prestige Cast In terms of Oscar nominees and winners per frame, the ensemble films "August: Osage County" and "American Hustle" may be tough to beat this season. Honorable mention: "Prisoners," starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Melissa Leo and Paul Dano. But "Out of the Furnace," from the writer-director Scott Cooper (whose "Crazy Heart" earned two Oscars, including a long-overdue statue for Jeff Bridges) and starring Christian Bale (Oscar winner), Casey Affleck (nominee), Woody Harrelson (nominee) and Forest Whitaker (winner) makes a strong showing. The story of two brothers, a military vet and a steelworker (Mr. Affleck and Mr. Bale) in down-and-out Braddock, Pa., it was a labor of love for Mr. Cooper, who started out as an actor before moving behind the camera. Opening this week, it is just his second film. It was inspired, he said at a recent lunch, by his own family - he grew up the grandson of a coal miner in Virginia, with many veterans around him - and by a trip to Braddock he took while promoting "Crazy Heart." "I was so moved by the town," he said. It was photographic and cinema-graphic, and the people that lived there, I was so touched by the sense of resilience and courage. I knew I could set a very personal story" there. In the film, one brother avenges the death of the other; without going into details, Mr. Cooper said he, too, had lost a sibling. The project also came from a screenplay he received, in the wake of the success of "Crazy Heart," via Leonardo DiCaprio and Ridley Scott. Mr. Cooper didn't want to direct it, but got Mr. DiCaprio and Mr. Scott to sign on as producers for his original story, with a similar idea. Brad Ingelsby also has a writing credit on it. Despite the producers" cachet, the film wasn't a breeze to make. "I wrote "Crazy Heart" for Jeff Bridges and had never met Jeff; I wrote this part for Christian having never met Christian," Mr. Cooper said. Had he not said yes, I wouldn't have made the film. We also wouldn't have made it if I didn't shoot it in Braddock. They wanted to shoot it in Massachusetts for fiscal reasons and I said, "I'm either shooting in Braddock or I'm not shooting it."" Except for some choreographed fight sequences, Mr. Cooper also did not rehearse his cast. "It kind of infuses the actors with a sense of electricity, knowing that we aren't rehearsing," he said, "that we're burning film and that's expensive and time-consuming. But it brings a level of intensity that I really wanted. Like many films this season, "Out of the Furnace" is not easy to watch, as it's full of violence and dark themes. After "Crazy Heart," Mr. Cooper said, "I was offered a lot of movies that would've been much easier to get made and also a less risky move to make." Instead he took four years to get this one done. And unlike a lot of young directors, Mr. Cooper said he had final cut. "When you have Leonardo DiCaprio and Ridley Scott as your producers and you have Christian Bale as your lead, all of whom embraced the movie in ways I could have never hoped, your cut is your cut," he said.