Actor Bradley Cooper has been cast as the lead in Steven Spielberg's upcoming Bullitt movie. Based on the 1963 Robert L. Fish novel, Mute Witness, the Peter Yates directed film starred legendary actor Steve McQueen as Detective Frank Bullitt who hunts down a mob kingpin that killed a key witness. Although the film was critically-acclaimed upon its initial release, Bullitt's legacy has continued to grow in the following decades as the movie contains arguably one of the greatest car chases in the history of cinema. At nearly 11 minutes total, the chase featured the titular character in his iconic green Ford Mustang rip through the streets of San Francisco as he relentlessly pursued his suspects. With a focus on realism, McQueen took the wheel in many of the action-sequence's shots to help create a scene that is regarded as a template for all future car chases. The complexity of the scene and its fast-paced editing helped Frank P. Keller earn the Academy Award for Film Editing that year.
Per Deadline, Cooper has been cast as Detective Frank Bullitt in a new movie based on the character by Spielberg. The film is set to be an original story centered on the hard-boiled cop, not a remake of the classic 1968 film. Spotlight's Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Josh Singer, has been tapped to pen the script.
Why A Cooper & Spielberg Collaboration Is Exciting
Cooper and Spielberg have known each other for years and have attempted to work with each other in the past. The actor briefly had the director on board for the critically-acclaimed war film, American Sniper. However, after only three months, Spielberg backed out of the project allowing famed actor-director, Clint Eastwood, to step in and deliver a film that went on to receive six Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture.
Although Spielberg's career has spanned more than 40 years with the likes of Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan, the director's quality has shown little to no decline. Spielberg has recently helmed multiple near universally-lauded movies including the biographical drama Lincoln, the political-thriller The Post, the West Side Story remake, and his semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film, The Fabelmans. With Cooper's career on nothing but an upward trajectory, the upcoming collaboration is set to become a riveting success.
Although Cooper's early career featured a number of comedies, to include Wet Hot American Summer, Wedding Crashers, and Yes Man, his well-received part as Eddie Morra in the 2011 science-fiction thriller, Limitless, marked a major shift in his roles to more compelling dramas. Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines, David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook, and Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley remake showcased Cooper's stirring emotional performances. During that time, the actor has earned four Academy Award nominations for acting, one for the Best Picture-nominated A Star is Born, which Cooper wrote, starred, and directed. With Spielberg behind the camera and Cooper in front of it, the new Bullitt film will likely be another achievement in their outstanding careers.
Source: Deadline