Bradley Cooper May Make His Directorial Debut With ‘Honeymoon With Harry’

In the last year alone, Bradley Cooper’s gone from movie star to Broadway actor with a stop along the way as a wise-cracking space raccoon. Clearly this is a man with some range, and a desire to push himself. Cooper hasn’t crossed over to directing yet, but according to Deadline, that’s the next career hurdle he hopes to clear. He reportedly wants to direct ‘Honeymoon With Harry,’ a project he’s been interested in starring in for several years. Its plot, per Deadline:

[Cooper would play] a formerly self-centered womanizing booze-hound who changed his ways when he met a girl and fell in love. He’s loathed by the girl’s dad, who recognizes himself in the young man. They get engaged anyway. When she dies tragically just before their wedding, the devastated groom heads off on their honeymoon to drown his sorrows and drink himself to death. Who does he meet but his almost father-in-law, who has come to spread his daughter’s ashes on her favorite beach.

Earlier today, Deadline also reported that Dan Fogelman (‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’) had been brought in by New Line to rework the previous draft of the script, which has been floating through Hollywood in one form or another for over a decade, for potential co-stars Cooper and Robert De Niro. That duo previously teamed on David O. Russell’s romantic drama ‘Silver Linings Playbook,’ and want to work together again. Cooper directing the film as well would be an additional wrinkle.

Cooper’s an ambitious guy, and he’s definitely interested in moving behind the camera; he produced his most recent film, ‘American Sniper,’ after serving as an executive producer on four previous projects in the last five years. So a move to the director’s chair isn’t shocking. Of course, how he’ll do there remains to be seen. The list of actors-turned-directors is long, but not always distinguished; for every Woody Allen, there’s a William Shatner. But Cooper’s worked with some of the most talented filmmakers in Hollywood. Let’s hope he was paying attention. Directorial careers don’t have very long honeymoon periods.