Over the years, many actors have made the pivot to feature film directing: Ben Affleck, Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Olivia Wilde, and more. Another high-profile example is Bradley Cooper, who saw his directorial debut, a remake of “A Star Is Born,” land eight Academy Award nominations, eventually walking away with Best Original Song for Cooper’s co-star Lady Gaga.
There is finally a casting update on Cooper’s next directorial project that will keep up the exploration of the world of music. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that actress Maya Hawke (“Stranger Things,” “Mainstream“) has landed a role alongside Cooper, Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman“), and Matt Bomer (“The Nice Guys“) in the Leonard Bernstein biopic, “Maestro.”
Bernstein is the legendary late conductor and composer known for “West Side Story.”
“Maestro,” tells of the complex love story between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Cohn Montealegre. It’s a story that spanned more than 30 years, from the time they met in 1946 at a party, and continuing through two on-off engagements, a 25-year marriage, three children (Jamie, Alexander, and Nina), and as Bernstein grappled with his own sexual orientation.
Hawke will play Bernstein’s daughter Jamie in the Netflix movie as filming is set to begin next month in New York. This is yet another Netflix role for Hawke, who has a reoccurring part in the hit series “Stranger Things” and recently had a cameo in the horror pic “Fear Street: 1994.”
The impressive producing team on “Maestro” consists of Cooper, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Fred Berner, and Amy Durning.
In an acting capacity, Cooper was last seen as the lead in Guillermo del Toro‘s remake of the period noir “Nightmare Alley” and played Jon Peters in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “Licorice Pizza.” Sounds like we’ll have to wait until 2023 for “Maestro,” but all good things come to those that wait.