Brad Pitt ready to rumble in boxing movie

LOS ANGELES - Brad Pitt is in negotiations to team with Mark Wahlberg in "The Fighter," a boxing drama to be directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Pitt is putting on the gloves that were to have been worn by Matt Damon, who had to bow out because of scheduling conflicts.

What is more notable, however, is that Pitt might finally make a movie with Aronofsky, with whom he was to have collaborated on "The Fountain" in 2002. Pitt pulled out of that movie during preproduction, effectively killing it until Aronofsky resurrected it in 2005 with Hugh Jackman at half the previous budget. Relations between the two soured for a while afterward. ("The Fountain" bombed at the box office last year.)

Based on the life of boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his trainer brother Dick Eklund (Pitt), "The Fighter" chronicles their early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., through Eklund's battle with drugs and Ward's eventual world championship in London. It is set up at Paramount.

Pitt returns to theaters Friday in the Western "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," which opens in limited release.