Recently, we brought you news that Jake Gyllenhaal was teaming up with Cary Fukunaga to bring a biopic about “West Side Story” composer Leonard Bernstein. And at the bottom of the article, we mentioned how Steven Spielberg was potentially working on his own Bernstein film. Well, now we know more about the film, and who’s taking the lead. It appears we’re about to have ourselves dueling Bernstein biopics!
According to a report from Deadline, Bradley Cooper has decided to direct and star in a new Leonard Bernstein film from Paramount Pictures and Amblin. The film, which is based on a script by “Spotlight” co-writer Josh Singer, will see Cooper star as the legendary musical genius and also take another stab at directing, after his first film “A Star is Born” has been getting incredible buzz. Cooper will also work with Singer on a revised script.
As mentioned above, Steven Spielberg is attached to the film as a producer, alongside Martin Scorsese, Fred Berner, Amy Durning, and Kristie Macosko Krieger. Previously, it was rumored that this film would be another directorial effort from Spielberg, but with ‘Indiana Jones 5’ next on his docket, followed by a remake of “West Side Story,” it appears that the filmmaker just didn’t have time to work on the biopic. Scorsese was also attached to direct the film about a decade ago, but with rights issues and delays, it took Spielberg and Cooper to revive the dying project.
No word yet on a release date for this Bernstein biopic, but it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out with Gyllenhaal and Cooper both playing the character. Obviously, this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen twin films, but it’s been a long time since we’ve had this much star power behind two dueling productions.
So, who you got? Cooper or Gyllenhaal?