After working on **American Sniper **with Clint Eastwood, an actor who has made a successful career out of combining leading man duties with work behind the camera on several films, Bradley Cooper seems ever more eager to follow in his footsteps. He’s in advanced negotiations to direct Warner Bros’ long-gestating remake of **A Star Is Born.
Cooper’s directorial ambitions are a matter of record – he’s already attached to make**Honeymoon With Harry **– but the new A Star Is Born seems like a much bigger and high profile job for a first-time director. Yet he was already aware of the possibility thanks to his established relationship with Eastwood, who seriously considered casting Cooper in the drama about mentoring and the often parlous nature of stardom when he was still on board to make it. It was the friendly connection they forged during that process that led Cooper to call Eastwood about taking over Sniper when Steven Spielberg left the film.
With more than $520 million worldwide in the bank, Sniper has become a bona fide sensation and Warners is happy to stay in business with Cooper. Part of his deal will be to produce and co-write a new draft of the script with current scribe Will Fetters, in the hopes that he’ll also star in the movie as the past-his-prime icon who helps mentor a young woman in fame game.
And his potential co-star? Someone with a passing acquaintance with superstardom herself and who was also a choice for Eastwood during his time in the director’s chair: Beyoncé. But that’s all for the future – for now Cooper still has to wrap up other work including appearing on stage in The Elephant Man, which transfers to London in May. It’s also by no means certain this will all work out, since the film, the fourth attempt after versions in 1937, 1954 and 1976, has been through years of development with the likes of Will Smith, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio all flirting with the lead.
Cooper will next be seen in Cameron Crowe’s Aloha, due here on September 4, John Wells’ culinary comedy drama Adam Jones, David O. Russell’s Joy and will appear in several episodes of prequel series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp on Netflix.