Salon.com > Bradley Cooper

Steven Spielberg to direct “American Sniper” film adaptation

Thu, 02 May 2013 19:38:00 +0000

The "American Sniper" project is moving forward, adding legendary director Steven Spielberg to its credits, reports THR. Spielberg will also co-produce the film, along with Andrew Lazar and Peter Morgan and actor Bradley Cooper.

Cooper bought the rights to the film adaptation of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's book in May 2012, but fast-tracked the project after Kyle's death in early 2013. Kyle was shot dead by veteran Eddie Routh, thought to have been struggling with PTSD.

Cooper will star as Chris Kyle, and intends to use the role to illuminate high-profile issues, telling NPR's Terry Gross that Kyle's story "needs to be told and it’s also relevant on two fronts. One, gun control, and two, the need to address this — the many soldiers that are coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“The Place Beyond the Pines”: Almost a great American father-son fable

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A sprawling, epic-scale triptych about fathers and sons in America that seeks to combine the spirits of Charles Dickens and Bruce Springsteen, “The Place Beyond the Pines” might be better off if it were just a crime movie with Ryan Gosling. Still, there’s no mistaking the immense ambition and tremendous craftsmanship of director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance (who made “Blue Valentine” with Gosling and Michelle Williams), and I think the movie is most effective if you know little about the story going in. So I’ll be pretty guarded in what I tell you about the story, which takes a couple of surprising narrative left turns and jumps forward in time.

“Place Beyond the Pines” director on movie violence: “I don’t think it’s beautiful. I don’t think it’s art. I don’t think it’s cool”

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:50:00 +0000

"The Place Beyond the Pines," the new film starring Ryan Gosling, hinges on a pivotal moment of violence; however, the film's director, Derek Cianfrance, hardly took it lightly. Though the film's action is impossible to describe in detail without spoiling, a gun and a split-second decision to shoot are involved. Cianfrance, who previously worked with heartthrob-of-the-moment Gosling on "Blue Valentine," spoke to Salon about the glut of violence on film -- and why it disgusts him.

Tell me a little bit about the obligation a filmmaker has when he depicts gun violence.

Well, personally, as a father, first, before I’m a filmmaker, I feel like I am responsible for my actions. I am responsible for what I put into the world, because this is a world for my children, and my kids cannot watch my movies now, but someday I will be proud to show them my movies. Sometime along the way, all of a sudden violence was deemed cinematic, for some reason. I think it must have been Peckinpah or something who turned it into this, like, ballet of violence.

It’s Ben Affleck’s evening

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 01:30:00 +0000

[liveblog id=66]

LIVEBLOG: 2013 Oscars Red Carpet

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:00:00 +0000

[liveblog id=67]

Could “Silver Linings Playbook” grab the top Oscar?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:06:00 +0000

It's by now conventional wisdom that "Argo" has overcome initial difficulty -- that pesky missing best director nomination for Ben Affleck -- to lead the field of nine best picture nominees (yes, even "Lincoln"!), and that the Iran hostage crisis drama will most likely triumph at Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony.

However, in an awards season characterized by reversals and surprises, could "Argo" lose out to a quirky romantic comedy?

It helps when that quirky romantic comedy is a production of Harvey Weinstein, whose films have won the past two best picture trophies and who engineered the past wins of movies like "Chicago" and "Shakespeare in Love." Like those films, 2012's "Silver Linings Playbook" is a comedy with a charismatic rising starlet in the lead (Jennifer Lawrence, in this case) and strong acting across the board.

But unlike those films, or Weinstein's other triumphant films "The King's Speech" or "The Artist," "Silver Linings Playbook" confronts dark contemporary events. The plot of "Silver Linings Playbook" centers around a man suffering from bipolar disorder, whose treatment is circuitous and often frustrating.

Bradley Cooper to play Chris Kyle in “American Sniper” biopic

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:50:00 +0000

Bradley Cooper has proven to be so much more than just a Hollywood hunk with pretty face, gaining critical praise this year for his moving portrayal in "Silver Linings Playbook" of Pat Solitano Jr., a young man who suffers from bipolar disorder. And Cooper takes the elevated role seriously, becoming a sort of an advocate for mental-health reform; yesterday, along with David O. Russel, he met with Vice President Joe Biden to discuss "acceptance, understanding and access to treatment for those with mental illness" in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings.

Now he's seeking out another emotionally charged, complex role: that of Chris Kyle, the "American Sniper" author and Navy SEAL who was shot and killed last week, allegedly by Eddie Routh, a war veteran believed to have been struggling with PTSD.

“Silver Linings” is gold

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:01:00 +0000

We get thrown right into the middle of Pat Solitano Jr.’s troubled life story, without any of the usual context or background. Played by Bradley Cooper in a major departure from his customary sleek pretty-boy roles, Pat is the unhinged, overly intense and not always likable protagonist of David O. Russell’s manic, inventive and rewarding “Silver Linings Playbook.” When we first meet him, he’s standing in the corner of his spartan room in a Baltimore mental hospital, talking to himself. His mom, played by the terrific Australian actress Jacki Weaver, has shown up from Philadelphia to sign him out, against doctor’s orders and without having consulted her husband. What did Pat do that got him locked up in the first place? What’s going on with this family? Why do Pat’s wife and the school where he used to teach have restraining orders against him?

Prison rape isn’t funny

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 19:45:00 +0000

There are any number of reasons to cross "Hit & Run" off your summer must-see list. I could tell you that Tom Arnold has a prominent role in it, and we could wrap it up right there. I could say that while Dax Shepard is appealing enough on "Parenthood," he may not be Renaissance-man enough to direct, write, co-produce, co-edit and star in a major motion picture. But there's another reason for the stench emanating from this wacky caper.

The plot takes its cues from the barrage of road trips-run-amok comedies of recent years, notably "The Hangover" and "Due Date." Shepard, the poor man's Zach Galifianakis, is an ex-getaway driver in the Witness Protection Program who runs afoul of both the feds and his old gang. Late in the film's trailer, Shepard is confronted by his nemesis, played by a dreadlocked Bradley Cooper, who tells him the source of his quest for vengeance. "I got [bleeped] in prison." But wait! The joke doesn't end there! Shepard, whose character is wittily named "Charlie Bronson," asks, "Was it a black guy?"