Bradley Cooper has certainly been branching out. The actor once known for playing douchebags in movies like WEDDING CRASHERS and THE HANGOVER trilogy has gained acclaim and awards consideration for dramatic roles like SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and AMERICAN HUSTLE. His latest film, AMERICAN SNIPER, is the strongest performance of his career while his stage performance in THE ELEPHANT MAN has been blowing audiences away. His next project may be yet another first for the guy once known as “the friend on ALIAS”.
Cooper has been linked to the movie HONEYMOON WITH HARRY, based on a script by Dan Fogelman. Cooper is close to starring in the movie alongside his SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK co-star Robert De Niro. In fact, the two actors did a reading of the script for HONEYMOON WITH HARRY back in 2010.
Cooper has long been intrigued with playing a formerly self-centered womanizing booze-hound who changed his ways when he met a girl and fell in love. He’s loathed by the girl’s dad, who recognizes himself in the young man. They get engaged anyway. When she dies tragically just before their wedding, the devastated groom heads off on their honeymoon to drown his sorrows and drink himself to death. Who does he meet but his almost father-in-law, who has come to spread his daughter’s ashes on her favorite beach.
The screenplay was originally written by CRASH’s Paul Haggis and was on the coveted Black List. Now that CRAZY STUPID LOVE’s Fogelman is writing a new draft, Deadline is reporting that Bradley Cooper is interested in making this his directorial debut. Cooper has worked with some great directors like David O. Russell and Clint Eastwood, so I am sure he has a good support system should he go behind the camera on this one.
The tone of this is said to be similar to James L. Brooks’ films which could also draw comparisons to David O. Russell‘s movies. Cooper has proven both his comedic and dramatic chops, so this may be the perfect project to test himself on. Hopefully this comes together and we get to see Cooper go toe to toe with De Niro again.
