Netflix has enlisted Bradley Cooper to star and direct in an untitled Leonard Bernstein film. Cooper (“A Star Is Born,” “Silver Linings Playbook”) also co-wrote the script with Josh Singer, who won an Oscar for “Spotlight.”
Deadline first reported the news.
The Bernstein film is slated to begin production in early 2021. Netflix will give it a theatrical release before it premieres on its site.
The project spans 30 years and relates the complex marriage between the lauded composer and his wife, Felicia Montealegre, which whom he had three children.
Producers for the drama include Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”) and Steven Spielberg, whose upcoming film remake of “West Side Story” uses Bernstein’s acclaimed original score. Cooper and his Joint Effort partner Todd Phillips, who directed and co-wrote “Joker,” are also part of the producing team.
Bernstein, the longtime musical director of the New York Philharmonic, was renowned as an orchestra conductor and composer of classical and popular works. He wrote symphonies and chamber works, as well as the music for “On the Town,” “Candide” and “Peter Pan.”
He was the first conductor to give a series of television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954.
Scott Stuber, Netflix’s head of film, told Deadline that Cooper’s “strong passion and clear vision for bringing to life the relationship … promises to do their lives justice.”
Other original Netflix films with 2020 releases include Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” Spike Lee’s “Da Five Bloods” and David Fincher’s “Mank.”