Upon hearing that Hollywood were to reboot
The Crow, a comics franchise whose cinematic life began with a film by
Alex Proyas - Hollywood's current hottest property
Bradley Cooper flew out to Spain within days to meet the new version's director
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo - begging to be placed under consideration to star in the picture. No doubt impressed by his eagerness,
talks quickly ensued and the project looked to be a go-er later this year until
contractual copyright problems became apparent and have bogged down any film until at least 2012. But one thing the attachment did tell us is that Cooper is a huge fan of at least one of Proyas' works, so it shouldn't be overly surprising to hear from
Variety that Cooper has become linked to the director's next film, a Legendary/Warner Bros 3D big budget adaptation of
John Milton's 17th century Poem
Paradise Lost. Yes you read that right. A 3D big budget Paradise Lost!
"Paradise Lost" tells the story of the epic war in heaven between archangels Michael and Lucifer, including the latter's role in Adam and Eve's fall from grace. Pic will be crafted as an action vehicle that will include aerial warfare, possibly shot in 3D.
Cooper would play Lucifer if early talks translate into a firm deal. The actor is 'eager to take the part' it's said and the project sounds as bonkers as what you might expect from the ever ambitious Proyas who directed
I, Robot and most recently
Knowing. Having successfully moved into production Bryan Singer's
Jack The Giant Killer fairytale to what Legendary hope will be a potential franchise success, the studio are hopeful of striking the same gold for Paradise Lost, a project Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Vincent Newman have been developing for years. So long in fact that it's already had four different screenwriters including
Bryon Willinger and
Philip de Blasi,
Lawrence Kasdan and
Ryan Condal (he who has turned in the most recent draft) - though it's said
Stuart Hazeldine (Exam) is responsible for the primary draft.
The size of
Wiki's entry on Paradise Lost of course tells us how important the story is to literature and I'm sure many of you will have studied it in school but can it possibly translate into an action film with religious overtones that won't turn people off? Outside of perhaps Mel Gibson, we don't have directors like Cecil B. DeMille anymore who could give the tale adequate and faithful justice and 'aerial shots with 3D' isn't what he would have gone for. Hopefully Proyas will call his film something different than Paradise Lost, and I imagine a lot of us will be quicker to warm to the project. Though Cooper's agent needs to take a look at the kind of deals he has been making lately. The Crow and playing Lucifer in Paradise Lost aren't the direction I would go with his post-The Hangover 2 career.