EXCLUSIVE: Michael Pena is the latest name to join David O Russell‘s next film, which already stars Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence. The Sony Pictures drama, formerly known as American Bullshit, is inspired by a true story of a notorious financial con artist and his mistress/partner in crime, who were forced to work with an overly ambitious federal agent to turn the tables on other con artists, mobsters and politicians. Russell is working with original scribe Eric Warren Singer on a rewrite, and Sony has set a December 13 release. Pena, whose recent credits include co-starring in David Ayer’s End Of Watch and Gangster Squad, recently completed voice work on DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo due out in July and also just wrapped the Diego Luna-directed Chavez. He is repped by CAA, Management 360 and Rick Genow.

David O. Russell‘s upcoming corruption drama, formerly known as American Bullshit, has a new name. It’s now titled American Hustle. The pic has been getting a lot of buzz because of its killer cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Jack Huston. Written by Eric Singer and Russell, American Hustle centers on the ’70s FBI sting operation Abscam that took down a bunch of U.S. congressmen.

With back-to-back Oscar-nominated films on his résumé, David O. Russell has cornered the American dream.

Now it's time to hustle.

Following the success of 2010'sThe Fighter and 2012'sSilver Linings Playbook, the director will head back into the heart of awards season with American Hustle (in limited release on Dec. 13, in theaters everywhere Dec. 25), a fictionalized film based on the FBI's Abscam sting operation.

Reunited with members of his Fighter and Silver Linings acting teams, Russell focuses on the intersection of the government and the Mob in the New York area in the late '70 and '80s, applying his textured realism to a world of entrapment, stylish swagger and raw humor.

Christian Bale stars as Irving Rosenfeld, a brilliant Bronx con-man whose specialization in stolen art catches the attention of unhinged FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). (Those tight curls are "not a perm, just for the record," says Russell, noting Cooper's character emulates a style popularized by '70s professional baseball players.)

DiMaso forces Irving and his British lover/accomplice Sydney (Amy Adams) into a web of New Jersey power brokers and the Mafia. Jennifer Lawrence is on hand as Irving's loose cannon of a Long Island house wife, Rosalyn, who threatens the entire operation. "Everybody gets to do something we've never seen before," says Russell. "That's exciting to me."

New to Russell's orbit is Jeremy Renner as Carmine Polito, a volatile New Jersey mayor keeping his community afloat in the midst of a recession. "That era was very much like our era now," says Russell. "The economy was not in a good place and people had to struggle to figure out how to reinvent themselves."

The real Abscam scandal ended on the national stage, with a U.S. senator and five congressmen convicted of corruption.

The American Hustle team saw a different side of history in April, bearing witness to the Boston Marathon bombings. "We were shooting in an outlying area that day," recalls Russell, who was told to stay indoors along with the cast as production shut down. "Christian Bale's wife was the first one to get through to him (on set). It was very surreal. It was very upsetting."

Russell is editing American Hustle, continuing what he describes as the year's "intense'' momentum (the film was in camera tests even as he walked Oscar's red carpet). But Russell is confident the effort will pay off. Ever since The Fighter, he says, "I feel very clear about what I want to do."

Harrow was a sharpshooter in the US Army during World War I. A war injury caused substantial damage to the left side of his face; he lost his eye, most of his cheek bone, the left half of his upper jaw and endured heavy scarring. In order to enter society with the least amount of distress, Harrow covers his scars with a tin plate that was molded to his face and painted to match his skin tone.