Could the Queen B be teaming up with the current king of the box office? Deadline reported Tuesday that Bradley Cooper is in talks to make his directorial debut with a remake of the classic showbiz drama and romance A Star is Born, and that Beyonce will be approached to star alongside Cooper in the film.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. hopes he can jump into the project, along with producing and taking a stab at the script by Will Fetters (The Lucky One, Remember Me) once he is finished starring in the Broadway production of The Elephant Man.
The bigger complication however may not be securing Cooper, but Beyonce. Clint Eastwood has long been attached to this project, but he recently revealed in an interview with THR’s Stephen Galloway that Beyonce is obviously very busy being a super-megastar, and that Warner Bros. was more jazzed about the casting than the actual legitimacy of the film. Beyonce hasn’t starred onscreen in a film since 2009’s Obsessed, but her background with Dreamgirls and Cadillac Records makes her an ideal fit for this remake.
This would be the fourth version of A Star is Born. There seems to be one for each generation of singing superstar. The variation on the story is always an up-and-coming talent makes her way to Hollywood and gets coaching from a volatile, alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him. The original from 1937 starred Janet Gaynor alongside Frederic March and was nominated for Best Picture, along with several other Oscars. The 1954 version was directed by George Cukor and starred Judy Garland and James Mason. And the 1976 version won an Oscar for Barbra Streisand for Best Original Song as she sang alongside Kris Kristofferson. Clearly we’re long overdue for another.
Deadline also got excited back in January when there was talk that Cooper might make his directing debut with Honeymoon with Harry, starring Robert De Niro.