Bradley Cooper: A Director Is Born

A director is born. Bradley Cooper is in talks to make his directorial debut with Warner Bros.' long-gestating remake of the musical A Star Is Born. The film, based on the 1937 film starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, centers on a movie star who helps an aspiring young actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral. Warner Bros. has been working on a remake of A Star Is Born for years.


A young and pretty waitress learns to know a famous, but alcohol-addicted actor at a Hollywood party, who falls in love with right away with the pretty girl. He recognizes her great talent and promotes her. She quickly rises to stardom in Hollywood, while the alcohol completely destroys him.

Cooper's American Sniper director, Clint Eastwood, has been attached to the project since 2011. At one time, Beyonce was attached to star, but things stalled when she got pregnant and Eastwood moved on to Jersey Boys. There already have been two remakes of the 1937 film, which was directed by William A. Wellman and garnered eight Academy Award nominations.


The first remake came out in 1954 and starred Judy Garland and James Mason. It was nominated for a slew of awards, and Garland and Mason won best actress and actor Golden Globes for their work. The second remake, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, was directed by Frank Pierson. It won five Golden Globe Awards including best motion picture - musical/comedy, as well as the Academy Award for best original song for "Evergreen."

Bradley Cooper starred in last year's breakout hit American Sniper, which became the top-grossing U.S movie of the year, earning $528.2 million worldwide. Cooper's upcoming films include David O. Russell’s Joy, John Wells’ Adam Jones and Cameron Crowe’s Aloha. Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Note from Weirdland: If Beyoncé is not available for the role of Vicki Lester, I am sure Bradley could make a call to his work-wife Jennifer Lawrence!

Jennifer Lawrence & Bradley Cooper: Power Couple in "Serena"

Watch Serena - Jennifer Lawrence in Drama  

Adapted from Ron Rash’s novel by Christopher Kyle, Serena re-teamed Lawrence and Cooper before Silver Linings Playbook even opened, two-and-a-half years ago. Since then it has been through at least three different edits on the search for distribution and it still has its problems, which is not to say that it is a mess. The glamorous stars are compelling and look dreamy in their period duds and out of them, in perhaps a few more sizzling sex scenes by firelight than are strictly necessary, and the landscapes are breathtaking.

We have great expectations of Lawrence and she does not disappoint, her Serena a fearless beauty in the Carole Lombard line who commands the respect of rough-hewn labourers in the logging camp, tames an eagle (literally and metaphorically) and is as irresistible as she is manipulative, cunning and dangerously jealous in her voracious love and desires. When she goes crazy you believe it.

Cooper achieves the near-impossible, making an entitled, macho man — who intends to hunt down the last of the panthers in the Carolinas— a resilient, striving figure rather to be admired and a sympathetic, classically flawed, tragic hero type. But you cannot possibly root for anyone (unless it’s that elusive cougar). They have fibre but lack morals. Instead you watch an inexorable spiral of awfulness the same involuntarily fascinated way you might peek through your fingers at a crash. Source: www.empireonline.com

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper have become an onscreen power couple. The twosome kicked off their working relationship in "Silver Linings Playbook" and then re-teamed for "American Hustle." Now, the dynamic acting duo is paired in the new period piece "Serena" and will join forces once again in "Joy," out Christmas Day.

Jennifer spoke about the comfort level she has formed with her co-star: "That's why we did 'Serena.' We were doing 'Silver Linings' – that was our first movie together – and we just loved it," she told Access Hollywood at the "Serena" premiere on Saturday in New York City. "He makes me better and we just collaborate so well. It's very easy and amazing, so we were just like, 'We gotta do this again' and then it just hasn't stopped."

Bradley and Jennifer first hit the dance floor onscreen in 'Silver Linings Playbook' and return to the ballroom in "Serena." The actor credited that experience for helping to knock down any barriers between the two. "We had just done a pretty serious movie together and [when] you're dance partners, I think that broke the ice more than anything. Once we did that dance," he said. "I don't think we even thought about the sex scene… Cause there's nothing sexy about it."

His beautiful actress sarcastically teased him in response, "We get it. You didn't think I was sexy."

"Serena" is now available On Demand and on iTunes. The movie opens in theaters on March 27. Source: www.accesshollywood.com

Happy Anniversary, Joan Crawford!

Happy Anniversary, Joan Crawford! (Born: Lucille Fay LeSueur March 23, 1905 in San Antonio, Texas - Died: May 10, 1977 in New York City)

Joan Crawford’s first appearance in front of a movie camera —unbilled— was in Lady of the Night (1925), in which star Norma Shearer played a dual role. When Shearer was playing one part, Joan would double for the other one, shot from behind or in profile from a distance.

Whether or not Joan had fallen in love with Clark Gable, her marriage to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was probably doomed from the start. In many ways Doug was a spoiled, isolated child of privilege who had married a comparatively sophisticated older woman who had pulled herself up by her bootstraps. For all his charm and levity, Fairbanks was, emotionally speaking, a boy who’d had everything handed to him at birth —by contrast, Joan had had to struggle for the same things. “Looking back,” Joan remembered, “it would probably be unfair of me to say Doug was superficial and I was so worldweary." Doug was old-fashioned, suggesting that Joan give up her career and let him be the sole bread-winner —a sure sign that he never really understood his wife at all. Then there was the lack of children. “I didn’t need another child,” Joan said, “I already had one in Doug.” In her autobiography, Joan mentioned several miscarriages; privately she admitted that on at least one occasion she had had an abortion. She hid this fact from Doug, just as she hid her affair with Gable.

Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in "Strange Cargo" (1940) directed by Frank Borzage

Joan’s performance in A Woman’s Face (along with her Oscar-winning turn in the later Mildred Pierce) has stuck even in the minds of people who weren’t necessarily big fans of hers —and in strange ways. Premier special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen was thinking of Joan in A Woman’s Face when he created his Medusa for the fantasy film Clash of the Titans in 1981.

Joan wanted to star in the film version of Mildred Pierce very badly. Warner Bros. queen Bette Davis had turned it down, and the front-runner for the role was Barbara Stanwyck (who had already triumphed in another James M. Cain adaptation, Double Indemnity).

Mildred Pierce was the first film Joan did for producer Jerry Wald, who would produce six more films with Joan from 1946 to 1959. “Jerry always had faith in me,” Joan was to say years later. Mildred Pierce is almost perfect moviemaking. The picture is imbued with real cinematic knowhow (albeit in a style not as showy as Hitchcock’s), and the dialogue is often priceless. Michael Curtiz’s direction is crisp, smooth and highly efficient, his handling of both players and props taut and assured. Curtiz and the brilliant cinematographer Ernest Haller ensure that Mildred Pierce is filled with expert camerawork, interesting angles, and evocative lighting schemes. Max Steiner may have recycled some music from his score for Now, Voyager but his opening theme for Mildred Pierce is excellent.

Joan is wonderful in Mildred Pierce, although there were critics of the time who suggested that she didn’t have the requisite emotion in certain sequences. Joan does seem to hold back a bit after the death of Mildred’s other, younger daughter; she was afraid that if she overplayed the hysteria and abject grief most mothers would feel at such a moment, she would be accused of chewing the scenery. Curtiz felt strongly that she should underplay the scene to emphasize her character’s obsession with Veda. “Please, God, don’t let anything happen to Veda,” Mildred says significantly at the end of the scene.

Henry Hart of Films in Review wasn’t the only one to suggest that there were many elements of Joan in Mildred Pierce. “Crawford gave Mildred Pierce a reality it might have otherwise lacked,” said Hart, “because it was her own life in some ways, a strong woman struggling against misfortune and the wrong men.” Because of this, Joan made her Mildred Pierce seem real despite the melodramatic and even farfetched aspects of the plot (one suspects that the more “naturalistic” approach of a 21st century actress wouldn’t be nearly as interesting). -"Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography" (2002) by Lawrence J. Quirk and William Schoell

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence at 'Serena' screening in N.Y.C.

Actors Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence attend a screening of 'Serena' hosted by Magnolia Pictures and The Cinema Society with Dior Beauty on March 21, 2015 in New York City.

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence attend the after party of a screening of 'Serena' hosted by Magnolia Pictures And The Cinema Society With Dior Beauty on March 21, 2015 in New York City.


When asked if shooting sex scenes with each other is more comfortable because of their friendship, Lawrence was quick to say, "No." "I guess it's more comfortable than not knowing the other person? I don't know," she added. "They're just awkward." "You never know how it's going to be," Cooper chimed in. "But for us, we laughed most of the time." "I pointed and laughed," Lawrence added, laughing hard. Source: etonline.com

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence's dark love story in "Serena", Suki Waterhouse in "Insurgent"

It’s 2015 and a Jennifer Lawrence/Bradley Cooper movie is going straight to video. Let us help explain the confusion that is Serena. Hypable reports that the movie was filmed in the same time span as Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle — films that earned Jennifer and Bradley a collective four Oscar nominations, with Jen taking home the Best Actress statue for Playbook. Given the box office success of the two movies, not to mention the Oscar nods and the star power of the two actors, it doesn’t seems practical to skip a theatrical release for Serena.

Movie critics chimed in with possible explanations, citing everything from poor reviews to the 18 months the movie spent in post-production. Vulture claims, “Some of its flaws are obvious: Bier has no feel for the Smoky Mountains, or the Depression, or, really, America, and the story doesn’t flow with any particular coherence, let alone momentum. Other flaws are harder to pin down. The tone is distressingly subdued for a film that’s ostensibly about rapacious ambition run amok. The script never really decides whether Serena is a calculating cutthroat or a winsome woodland foundling. (Or neither. Or both!)”

The New York Post panned Bradley and Jennifer’s performances, saying he “struggles with a Boston accent,” while she “has trouble making believable an eagle-training independent woman who goes mad after a miscarriage and the discovery that she may have to share her husband’s love with his newborn illegitimate son.” Back in September, the Hollywood Reporter noted that multiple distributors passed on picking up the movie, even when three different versions were cut. One potential buyer reportedly said, ”The film was so edited, it made no sense.” Source: popcrush.com

Speaking with The Times, Susanne Bier insists her vision for the Depression-era drama was never one for mass consumption, but things changed as the film's stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence became more famous. "I had to fight for Jennifer when we were financing the movie,” Bier says. “I had to fight for her! But we cast them both, and in the interim, they became these huge stars, and that changed the expectations around the movie. It was always a dark, dark, love story. Never a mainstream film.”

And while Bier never comes right out and says it, the participation of Cooper and Lawrence seemed to change as they became more cautious about the resulting picture. "It did become a more complex process. And I want to say that neither of them [Cooper and Lawrence] —I mean, Bradley has come to Copenhagen and has been engaging very much in the editing. And they both have been really supportive and great. But it, er, it is more complex. I think what happened is that a lot of people got more anxious because they became such big stars and...” Source: blogs.indiewire.com

Filming will take place at the old garage next to Heav’nly Donuts. North Reading Police said the film going by the names of both “Joy” and “Kay’s Baptism” will be back for more shooting on Winter Street on Monday, March 23 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro. They have been filming in Wilmington and North Reading over the past month. The Winter Street garage has been transformed into a Hollywood set. Source: patch.com

Hollywood has been criticized for not creating many strong roles for women, but “Divergent” boasts an enviable roster of female talent, including Sahilene Woodley, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet. Not only is the movie centered on a woman, played by Woodley, but her main antagonist, played by Winslet, is female. “These explorations of young women in science fiction, by its category and very nature, feels fresh and exciting,” said producer Doug Wick.

Cast members said they hoped that the commercial response to “Divergent” and other female-driven blockbusters such as “The Hunger Games” may help shatter glass ceilings across the entertainment industry. “We have A-list, we have new stars, we have veterans, we have the whole spectrum of female talent,” said Maggie Q, one of the film’s stars. “Everybody brings what they bring in such a complete way that I really hope that more female ensembles will happen because they really don’t happen that often.” Source: variety.com

Suki Waterhouse is preparing to make an impact in The Divergent Series: Insurgent. The 23-year-old model plays the role of Marlene, a member of the Dauntless faction in the sequel to the 2014 movie Divergent. Divergent was the first film in the planned series and last year Summit Entertainment announced the third book in the trilogy will be split into two parts with Allegiant - Part 1 due out in March 2016 and Allegiant - Part 2 scheduled for release in March 2017.

Suki, no doubt, has been getting plenty of acting tips from her Oscar-nominated boyfriend Bradley Cooper. 'We were introduced and hit it off almost immediately,' she said in an interview with Rollercoaster magazine. 'We were dancing at the after-party, and he asked me if I fancied going to a club. We went to Cirque Le Soir in London – and he's a ridiculously good dancer,' she added. Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Suki Waterhouse in GQ magazine, April 2015
UPDATE: Bradley Cooper and Suki Waterhouse have split up. Source: uk.eonline.com