“Netflix has acquired all rights to the untitled Leonard Bernstein film that Bradley Cooper will direct, star in and produce from the script he co-wrote with Oscar-winning Spotlight scribe Josh Singer,” writes Mike Fleming Jr. in Tuesday’s (1/21) Deadline.com. “The drama spans over 30 years in telling the beautifully complex story of the marriage between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre. Netflix will make the film with … top producers [including] Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg…. Scorsese several years ago intended to direct a Bernstein film at Paramount … but stepped aside to make way for Cooper as he put his time into directing Best Picture nominee The Irishman. Spielberg just shot a remake of West Side Story [which has a Bernstein score]…. The Bernstein film is expected to begin production early next year. Netflix will give it a significant theatrical release before the film premieres on its streaming site…. The studio embraced the film when Cooper and the filmmakers got the exclusive rights from the Leonard Bernstein estate … effectively [ending] a competitive situation with a rival project that had Jake Gyllenhaal playing Bernstein in a film … to be directed by Cary Fukunaga.”
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