Lady Gaga is slated to star opposite Bradley Cooper in the long rumored remake of the classic movie musical A Star Is Born. The pop star confirmed the news on her Twitter account.
Reports of a potential remake of the movie have been floating around Hollywood for the past few years. While Cooper was always mentioned as the director and co-star for the project, which will mark his film directorial debut, the actress rumored to be starring opposite him was another A-list pop star, Beyoncé.
Things apparently heated up this spring when Lady Gaga's name was newly attached to A Star Is Born, and a reported screen test with Cooper apparently wowed the bigwigs at Warner Bros., which is producing the film. Now, Lady Gaga herself has confirmed the news that she will indeed be performing the title role in the flick.
Im elated to be directed by & starring w/ Bradley in this project. He's a brilliant visionary artist. #AStarIsBorn #AStarIsBornCooperGaga
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 17, 2016
The film will be the third remake of A Star Is Born. The original version was released in 1937 and starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and was faithfully remade in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason taking the lead roles. In 1976, a third version starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson was released. In that most recent version, the plot was changed from the original, in which the leading lady is an ingénue starlet who becomes a huge movie star, into a story about the music industry where Streisand is a budding singing star.
It's not clear yet whether the new version starring Gaga and Cooper will be set in modern times, or if it will remain faithful to the original two versions, follow the more recent Streisand interpretation, or take some other course. The 1976 take was a critical flop, despite winning five Golden Globes, including one for Best Picture, at a time when the integrity of the Golden Globes selection process was dubious at best. The flick did win an Oscar for Best Song for Streisand's "Evergreen."
Both of the earlier versions were critical and box office successes, however, and received multiple Oscar nominations, with the Garland version now considered a classic.
Gaga seems particularly well suited for the role in that, while she is a modern pop star in every sense of the phrase, she also has the range and ability to perform classic American standards such as "The Man That Got Away" and "Swanee" from the 1954 version, as evidenced by her recent successful duet album and tour with Tony Bennett. While there are bound to be some Gaga originals in the soundtrack, it's possible that the singer may choose to mix it up by also performing some songs from the previous films. Production on the movie is slated to begin next year.
