Matt Bomer is in early talks to join the cast of the upcoming Netflix Leonard Bernstein pic Maestro, which has Bradley Cooper directing and starring as the iconic composer. If a deal closes, Bomer joins Carey Mulligan, who will play Bernstein’s wife Felicia. Pic will be produced by Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg,, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Fred Berner and Amy Durning. Netflix had no comment.

In his directorial followup to A Star Is Born, Cooper will star as Bernstein, and produce from the script he co-wrote with Oscar-winning Spotlight scribe Josh Singer. The drama spans over 30 years. Bernstein’s career is enough to fill a miniseries: his conducting debut at the New York Philharmonic at 25 when the conductor took ill; without even rehearsing, Bernstein did so well his star was launched the next day when his feat made the front page of The New York Times. He was blacklisted before being cleared of being a communist just before he composed the Oscar-nominated score for On the Waterfront; and he was an activist in the civil rights movement, and outspoken on issues including ending the Vietnam War. But the through line for the movie is the beautifully complex story of the marriage between Bernstein and his wife. [Source]

Vanity Fair has the first look at Bradley’s upcoming project titled “Nightmare Alley”. The movie is set to release in December 2021. Check out the first look photos then head to the VF website to read the full feature.

Deception is at the core of Guillermo del Toro’s new thriller Nightmare Alley, but the Oscar-winning filmmaker actually wants to be completely honest with audiences: This movie is not what you might think it is. The ominous title, combined with the del Toro’s long history of bringing ghosts, ghouls, and twisted creatures to the screen in films from Cronos to The Shape of Water, may lead to the mistaken assumption that it’s another otherworldly tale. Nightmare Alley is actually his take on classic film noir, marking a stark shift for the filmmaker. But he knows the false impression might stick.

“That is a distinct possibility,” del Toro tells Vanity Fair. “It has happened to me in the past with Crimson Peak, where people went in expecting a horror movie. I knew it was a gothic romance but it was very difficult to put that across. But yes, this has no supernatural element. It’s based completely in a reality world. There is nothing fantastic. It’s a very different movie from my usual, but yes, the title and my name would create that [impression].”

There are still monsters in this film, out December 17, but these are all human beings: glamorous, elegant, and more alluring than off-putting. Maybe that makes them even more dangerous. Bradley Cooper stars as Stanton Carlisle, a former carnival worker who becomes a big-city star as a nightclub performer, using cold-reading tricks he picked up in the sideshow to create the impression he is a powerful mind reader. Now the marks and rubes he targets are millionaires. Cate Blanchett plays Dr. Lilith Ritter, a psychiatrist who first tries to expose him as a charlatan, then becomes embroiled in his schemes.

“The carnival is almost like a microcosm of the world,” del Toro says. “Everybody’s there to swindle everybody. But at the same time in the carnival, the [workers] know they need each other. In the city, much less so.”

Nightmare Alley is based on a 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham, made previously into a gritty 1947 film starring Tyrone Power. Del Toro says his screenplay with Kim Morgan is drawn from the page rather than the screen, which required heavy reworking. “From the beginning, our interest was to go for the novel, but it’s almost impossible to adapt because it has a very kaleidoscopic, very peculiar voice. You would need a six-hour miniseries and shifting points of view, and this and that,” del Toro says. “We started from the novel, and didn’t want to do a remake as much as a new adaptation.” [more at source]

Bradley Cooper and Paul Thomas Anderson, each eight-time Oscar nominees, are teaming up.

Cooper is in talks to star in Anderson’s next feature, an untitled coming-of-age drama set in the 1970s San Fernando Valley, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Plot details are being kept secret, but the movie involves multiple storylines revolving around a kid actor attending high school in the Valley, which is the setting of some of Anderson’s best-known titles including Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love. It is unclear what role Cooper would play in the movie.

Anderson wrote and will produce the movie via his Ghoulardi Film Company banner, along with Sarah Murphy.

The project, which recently jumped to MGM from Focus Features, was gearing up for a spring/summer 2020 production start date prior to the COVID-19 shutdown. According to sources, the project is now eyeing a fall start, but this is contingent on how and when productions are able to begin shooting again in Los Angeles. [More at Source]

 Rooney Mara is set to star with Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett in Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro’s first directorial outing since his Best Picture winning The Shape of Water. He’s making the film for Fox Searchlight under the deal he made at the studio after they collaborated on the Oscar winner.

Del Toro wrote the script with Kim Morgan. The film’s being produced by del Toro and J. Miles Dale with TSG Entertainment, with Fox Searchlight acquiring worldwide distribution rights.

The film is based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel about a corrupt con-man who teams with a female psychiatrist to trick people into giving them money. Mara plays Molly, the closest thing to Stan’s true love. He meets her early on and they take the act they learned from the circus to Chicago. Cooper plays Stan. Mara and Blanchett previously starred together in Carol. [Source]