First Look At Bradley Cooper In Serena

With Jennifer Lawrence's star rising at a meteoric rate and Bradley Cooper already possessed of enough magnetism to mess with the Earth's gravitational forces, this new still from Depression-era drama **Serena **could be the hottest thing this side of the Halle-Boppe.

Click on the image, courtesy of Playlist, for a closer look. Bonnie and Clyde, eat your hearts out (foxes should probably look away too, given Lawrence's neck-wear).

Those Bonnie And Clyde comparisons aren't merely satorial. Ron Rash's novel - the source material from which **Serena **is adapted - pitches us into a moral wasteland where only the fit, and fierce, survive.

Lawrence is Serena Pemberton, the Lady Macbeth-like figure behind husband Cooper's North Carolina timber baron. When she discovers that she's unable to bear children, Serena developes a cruel vendetta against her husband's illegitimate son.

Shades, perhaps, of Upton Sinclair and Cormac McCarthy, whose work has been adapted for the screen to such good effect. With Susanne Bier, Oscar-winner for** In a Better World**, behind the camera and Lawrence getting a first chance to show her darker stripes, this is one to keep a beady eye on. It's currently shooting in Prague and is scheduled for release in 2013.