Having been a producer on several films including Silver Linings Playbook, The Words and his latest release, awards wannabe American Sniper, Bradley Cooper has been itching to sit in the director’s chair for a while. He may get his chance on **Honeymoon With Harry.
Warner Bros. has been trying to get this one made for years now, burning through drafts and attracting the interest of actors such as Cooper and his** Silver Linings Playbook** co-star Robert De Niro, who both took part in a table read for the script in 2010. Now the studio has contracted Crazy, Stupid, Love writer Dan Fogelman to try to push it into production.
Honeymoon is the sad, strange story of a former womaniser and party animal (Cooper) that decides to sober up when he meets a woman and falls in love. His father-in-law to be (De Niro) sizes him up from the off and, in true Jack Byrnes-from-Meet The Parents-style, decides to break them up.
But the pair goes ahead and gets engaged, only for the woman to die tragically just before the wedding. The groom decides to go on the honeymoon anyway, planning to drink himself into a stupor and, since he doesn’t care about living, an early grave. Until, that is, he runs into De Niro’s character, who has come to spread his daughter’s ashes on her favourite beach.
The story behind the script’s long, troubled trip to the screen could fuel a movie in itself. Back in 2004, New Line and a producer named Mike Katz nabbed the rights to what was then an unpublished book by Bart Baker, and hired Paul Haggis, in his pre-Crash/**Million Dollar Baby **days, to adapt it. Haggis managed to secure a deal to direct, and lined up Vince Vaughn and Jack Nicholson for the roles, but hit a snag when the studio couldn’t agree on a budget or tone for the pic.
Now, with Fogelman aboard, Cooper is also thinking he’ll take a shot at directing the film, but no formal deal has been made yet. He’s currently busy appearing on Broadway in The Elephant Man, with a West End run planned soon. The actor will also crop up in Cameron Crowe’s new, still-untitled romantic drama, due July 3.** American Sniper** will be out here on Friday.