Bradley Cooper Undergoes Dramatic Transformation for Biopic on Musical Legend

By Michael Hein

Bradley Cooper will direct and star in a new biopic of music legend Leonard Bernstein, and his transformation for the role is remarkable. On Monday, the first teaser images for the Netflix original film Maestro dropped online. Fans are more excited than ever to see Bradley back in action bringing this unique story to life.

Bernstein was a composer and conductor best known for his work in Broadway musicals, including some of the most universally beloved songs ever brought to the stage. His career kicked off in the in the 1940s and continued up until his death in 1990. However, Cooper's new movie will apparently focus in on Bernstein's complex marriage to Felicia Montealegre. Carey Mulligan plays Montealegre in the movie, and the teaser images show her and Cooper in costume together.

Both actors are hardly recognizable, with makeup and prosthetics helping to age them up and change their appearances. Of course, their mannerisms and expressions are modeled after their real-life subjects as well, and the period-specific costumes and cinematography don't hurt either.

Maestro just went into production this month, and it is expected to premiere sometime in 2023. Although Netflix is producing the project, it's not clear if it will be a streaming exclusive, according to a report by Variety. Cooper spoke to the outlet about how he wound up directing this project, which was originally meant for Steven Spielberg. Coming off of A Star is Born, Cooper wanted to do it all himself.

"I [told Spielberg], 'I always felt like I could play a conductor, but may I research the material and see if I can write it and direct it? Would you let me do that?'" he said. "Steven has a lot of interests – he'll just choose one thing and all of the other things will be on hold. I think he knew he wasn't going to make that movie for a while. He was kind enough to hand it off to me, and that's what I've been doing for the last four and a half years."

The screenplay for Maestro was co-written by Bradley and Josh Singer – a screenwriter best known for Spotlight. It is produced by Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Todd Phillips. Other stars include Jeremy Strong, Matt Bomer and Maya Hawke. There's no official release date in place for this movie just yet, nor any word on what format it might premiere in.

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