Actor and director Bradley Cooper will direct his second feature following on from his 2018 debut A Star Is Born, the biopic Maestro, about the American composer Leonard Bernstein, one of the most anticipated films this year.
The film has been produced by two of the most prominent directors in the industry, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, and will detail the lengthy relationship between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein.
Scorsese and Spielberg had both been attached to the project since the rights to the film were acquired back in 2008 until, eventually, the job went to Cooper. Another producer of Maestro has revealed the details of how Cooper landed his directing duties.
Kristie Macosko Krieger has claimed that Spielberg passed over the directing job to Cooper after he saw his 2018 directorial debut, A Star Is Born, the fourth adaptation of the classic movie, starring Lady Gaga.
In an interview with Deadline, Krieger noted, “Steven was moving towards making West Side Story. So Steven was no longer going to direct, and Bradley, like right at that time, I feel like it was March or April of 2018, [spoke to him].”
Krieger continued, “Bradley said, ‘Steven, if you’re not going to direct this, can I throw my hat in the ring? I just finished A Star Is Born. I’m just putting the finishing touches on it. Can you watch the movie, if you like the movie, I’d love to do the job.'”
After Spielberg watched just 20 minutes of A Star Is Born, he told Cooper, “You are directing this movie; you must direct Maestro.”
Check out the trailer for Maestro below.
