Netflix Lands Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein Biopic

Well, this is certainly surprising, yet not totally unexpected given the ongoing relationship between Netflix and Paramount. Netflix has landed Bradley Cooper’s hotly-anticipated follow up to “A Star Is Born,” a musical drama based on the life of composer Leonard Bernstein, best known for his work on “West Side Story,” “Peter Pan,” Candidate” and others (per Variety). The project, which has Cooper co-writing, directing, and producing (alongside a murderer’s row of producers including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, and Todd Phillips), as well as starring as the iconic composer, was originally set up at Paramount.

According to Variety, “The film will span over 30 years, telling the story of the marriage between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre.” Cooper has been working closely with the Bernstein estate over the past couple of years.

This is the latest Paramount project that Netflix has either taken over or rescued entirely. The streaming giant made waves when it debuted Paramount’s anticipated genre film “The Cloverfield Paradox” on Super Bowl Sunday 2018 and took over international distribution for the studio’s tricky sci-fi project “Annihilation.” More recently they made waves when they announced that they would be releasing “Beverly Hills Cop 4” and not Paramount proper (where all of the other films were produced), solidifying their relationship with the studio and with Eddie Murphy, who recently starred in Netflix’s wonderful “Dolemite Is My Name.”

It’s unclear when the as-yet-untitled Bernstein biopic will make its way to the streamer (and select theaters, of course), although the timing couldn’t be better, considering Spielberg’s own “West Side Story” remake will debut at the end of this year and a Broadway revival of the show is being mounted as well. 2021 release date we’ll guess? Fingers crossed this one arrives sooner rather than later.