Superstar actors Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg are set to hit it off in a newly announced boxer flick, 'The Fighter'.

"The Fighter" tells the gritty story of "Irish" Mickey Ward, to be played by Wahlberg, a boxer helped to the world lightweight championship by his half-brother Dicky Eklund, who had forfeited his sports career for drugs and crime.

Bale is set to play Elklund.

The movie, which will begin production in July, has stalled twice in the past as other big Hollywood names pulled out of the ring.

But industry magazine Variety said the Boston, Massachusetts-set hard scrabble fighting film is poised for the go-ahead with Bale and Wahlberg, a Boston native, onboard.

Welsh-born Bale (35), the star of 'The Dark Knight', 'American Psycho' and 'Empire Of The Sun', will be next seen in the much-anticipated summer movie 'Terminator Salvation'.

In 'The Fighter' he teams up again with Relativity, the production company that backed his cowboy drama '3:10 to Yuma'.

Director David O. Russell worked with Wahlberg (37) on the Gulf War heist flick 'Three Kings'.

'The Fighter' marks Russell's highest profile return to Hollywood since his infamous on-set meltdown when he directed the 2004 existential comedy 'I Heart Huckabees'.

Russell's explosive verbal fight with 'Huckabees' actress Lily Tomlin has became a sensation on YouTube.