Bradley Cooper Launches Production Label; Sets 'Hyperion' At Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: Eight-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper is launching a new production banner, Deadline has learned. At the same time, Cooper and Weston Middleton at the new label are set to produce Hyperion based on the four-volume series of Dan Simmons novels, a project Cooper has had long in the works.

Hyperion now moves over from TV’s Syfy to Warner Bros. motion pictures with Oscar winner Graham King still attached to produce under his GK Films.

Previously conceived as a limited series for Syfy, Hyperion now will be adapted as feature by Tom Spezialy, the Emmy-winning EP of HBO’s limited series Watchmen. A search for a director is underway. The change-up in adapting the IP as a movie instead of a limited series is to provide the IP with more breadth and scope that the expansive story demands.

Published by Bantam Spectra, the Hyperion Cantos series includes Hyperion (1989), The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Endymion (1996) and The Rise of Endymion (1997). The books are set 700 years after the death of Old Earth, where the entire galaxy is at war. Seven strangers set forth on a journey to unlock the mysteries of the planet Hyperion’s Time Tombs — each convinced that they alone carry the key to saving humanity.

Executive producer Hayley King will oversee the project on behalf of GK films.

Cooper had a six-year deal with Todd Phillips and Warner Bros that concluded in 2019 with back-to-back commercial and critically acclaimed films. There was A Star Is Born — nominated for eight Oscars including Cooper for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor — which grossed $436M worldwide. There also was Joker, which became the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever making $1.07 billion and notching 11 Oscar nominations including Cooper for Best Picture and two Oscar wins for Joaquin Phoenix (Best Actor) and Hildur Guðnadóttir (Best Original Score).

Cooper also was Oscar-nominated in the 2015 Best Picture category and Best Actor for Clint Eastwood’s highest-grossing feature, American Sniper, which made $547.4M global. In addition he received a Best Actor Oscar nom for 2013’s Silver Linings Playbook and an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actor for 2014’s American Hustle.

Phillips has been with Warner Brothers since 2005, beginning with Starsky & Hutch through his $1.4 billion-grossing The Hangover franchise, and remains on the Burbank lot.

Cooper and Middleton are working on a name of their new production label.

Cooper has a first-look deal with Netflix, where he is making his new film, Maestro, which is in pre-production. He is repped by Range Media Partners. Middleton served as the associate producer on A Star Is Born.

King, a four-time Oscar nominee, won Best Picture for 2007’s The Departed.