Feb 1, 2013

Tradecraft: Warner Bros. Options Period Spy Adventure for Bradley Cooper

Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has optioned a forthcoming non-fiction WWI-era spy book by Howard Blum called Dark Invasion as a potential star vehicle for Oscar-nominated actor Bradley Cooper (Alias). Since it covers the first modern attacks on American soil, the book is set to be published on September 11. Here's how the trade blog describes Dark Invasion:
The book is a true spy thriller set in 1915 when Germany, with war raging in Europe and the U.S. still neutral, decides to send their Secret Service to America to wage a covert war to keep this country from helping the Allies. The Kaiser’s spies bomb factories, sabotage ships, shoot J.P. Morgan, Jr. (a financier of the Allies), bomb the U.S. Capitol Building, and set up an anthrax lab six miles from the White House.
According to Deadline, Cooper is attached to play New York Police Captain Tom Tunney, who’s credited with forming America's first Homeland Security task force to track down those German spies. So it sounds kind of like Gangster Squad, but with spy smashing. Which doesn't sound bad at all.

5 comments:

Lionel Braithwaite said...

Why do I get the feeling that this is a completely wack movie (one I won't be seeing, BTW) that makes Germany out to be the enemy,is completely alarmist, and makes heroes out of an organization that is no more than America's secret police?, but more overt and nasty?

Hasn't the screenwriter of this movie heard about the abuses of power done by DHS, such as warrentless wiretapping, opening people's e-mail, no-knock searches, and a whole other host of things? And what makes them think that DHS is even cool?

Tanner said...

Perhaps in my haste I wrote unclearly. Tunney didn't actually found what we know as the Department of Homeland Security. That was formed in 2002; the events depicted in this story take place in 1915. I suspect that whoever wrote the press release that went to Deadline, which I was paraphrasing in that final paragraph, was merely citing DHS to make the subject matter connect with modern audiences. The screenwriter probably used the connection in his pitch as well, because it makes the material relevant.

Bob said...

I think it would be a good time in Cooper's career to get away from the "Hangover" type comedies. A period spy/war film sounds interesting.

Elliot James said...

I haven't seen all of his work but Cooper always bores me. He seems uncommitted and uninterested in his characterizations.

Tanner said...

I liked him on Alias as Will, but then felt exactly the same as you, Elliot, for all of his film career... up until Silver Linings Playbook. I didn't even want to see it because I hadn't liked Cooper in any movies, but I did, and it was great... and HE was great! Which was a big, pleasant surprise. But it doesn't automatically earn him my attendance at future movies. We'll just have to see. But it did make me reconsider my negative reaction to the idea of him playing Napoleon Solo. Maybe that wouldn't have been bad at all.