Bradley Cooper is in talks to star in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s next movie, which recently moved from Focus Features to MGM, which has become rejuvenated under the leadership of Michael De Luca.
The untitled coming-of-age drama finds Anderson returning to the San Fernando Valley of the 1970s — the same setting as the first half of Boogie Nights. The director’s next two films, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love, also took place in the Valley.
Anderson’s latest film follows a child actor attending high school in the Valley. Cooper is likely playing an old-school producer or director who takes a liking to the boy. Sources say that Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas and George Clooney had all been considered early on in the casting process, back when the project was set up at Focus, and before the pandemic pushed back production.
Anderson wrote the script and will produce via his Ghoulardi Film Company along with Daniel Lupi and JoAnne Sellar. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, adding that production is now being eyed to start in the fall, should Los Angeles officials allow local filming to resume.
Cooper is coming off a trio of Oscar nominations for his work on A Star Is Born, and he’s in the midst of developing a Leonard Bernstein biopic for Netflix that he’d star in as well as produce alongside heavyweights Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and old pal Todd Phillips, with whom he produced the Best Picture nominee Joker.
Cooper and Anderson make for an exciting pairing, and if it wasn’t already, this movie instantly became one of my most-anticipated titles of 2021. Speaking of which, Cooper is currently in the middle of filming Guillermo del Toro‘s Nightmare Alley, which was forced to shut down production due to the pandemic.
via Collider