who berned it best

Bradley Cooper Has Entered the Battle of the Leonard Bernstein Biopics

Chose your player. Photo: Getty Images

Perhaps after being inspired by that one Leonard Bernstein joke in John Mulaney’s new special, everyone in Hollywood has decided to make Leonard Bernstein movies. Last week, Jake Gyllenhaal joined the cast of a Leonard Bernstein movie directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and written by Michael Mitnick, financed by Bron Studios, with plans to start shooting this fall. Now, Deadline reports that Bradley Cooper is planning to star in and direct his own movie about the famed conductor and composer. Cooper would also write the script with Spotlight’s Josh Singer and the film would be financed by Paramount and Amblin, Steven Spielberg’s production company. (Spielberg recently held a secret reading of a Bernstein project, and this sounds like it.) According to Deadline, both projects have been in discussions with the Bernstein estate. Gyllenhaal’s will be an adaptation of Humphrey Burton’s Bernstein biography. Cooper’s is based on a script Josh Singer wrote before Spotlight and set aside. Though both projects might not make it, we could be heading to a real Capote versus Infamous scenario. It’s like No Strings Attached versus Friends With Benefits but about mid-20th-century classical music. It’s Deep Leonard versus ArmaBernstein! It’s the Sharks and the Jets!

Bradley Cooper Joins the Battle of the Bernstein Biopics