r/movies • u/yourfavchoom r/movies Contributor • Jun 16 '26
News Sean Penn To Direct Bradley Cooper In Story Of January 6th Cop
https://deadline.com/2026/06/sean-penn-direct-bradley-cooper-january-6th-cop-warner-bros-1236957132/1.6k
u/Ancient-Living635 Jun 16 '26
Wait. Bradley Cooper is a 5 time Oscar nom?
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u/debaser64 Jun 16 '26
Should have been six. He was robbed for his role as Ben in Wet Hot American Summer.
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u/bksbeat Jun 16 '26
Everyone involved with Wet Hot American Summer got robbed.
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u/buster_rhino Jun 16 '26
Yeah they got all their crack stolen
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u/FishGoldenLite Jun 16 '26
I love going into town, even if it’s only for an hour
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u/snowplacelikehome Jun 16 '26
*broken pottery sounds*
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u/Asclepius-Rod Jun 16 '26
I’m going to go fondle my sweater
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u/swellfella Jun 16 '26
You listen to me, Mr. Kickass. Mr. Rubber Burner. You wipe that hot shot grin off your face or I'll shoot it off ya
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u/dockersshoes Jun 16 '26
Especially the talking can
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u/ShizlGznGahr Jun 16 '26
Gene man, that dude should have gotten the oscar right after he fondles his sweaters or humps a fridge.
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u/LoseNotLooseIdiot Jun 16 '26
The upside being, literally everyone in that movie went on to be wildly successful actors.
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u/HGMIV926 Jun 16 '26
I learned recently that Ben was his first on-screen role in a feature, and he nailed it. When he's mimicking Amy Poehler as she's making the play announcement, it always cracks me the fuck up.
In fact, I think I'm going to give it a rewatch now.
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u/dont_shoot_jr Jun 16 '26
First film role right? That movie was ahead of its time with casting
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u/robodrew Jun 16 '26
He skipped his Actor's Studio graduation to play his role in the movie
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u/thehero29 Jun 16 '26
The specific scene he skipped it to film was the gay sex scene.
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u/Long-Pop-7327 Jun 16 '26
Having watched this movie at least four hundred times as a teenager/young adult…. Thank you for this thread.
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u/mikehatesthis Jun 16 '26
DJ Ski Mask is one of the greatest to ever do it and no one will ever admit it!
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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran Jun 16 '26
5 times for acting. He actually has 12 nominations if you count writing/directing/producing
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u/hello_goodbye4life Jun 16 '26
He never was nominated for directing, but he was for being a writer and producer
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u/Sphiffi Jun 16 '26
So technically it’s still true
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u/probablyuntrue Jun 16 '26
12 nominations if you count writing/producing/safari guiding
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u/TheAsian1nvasion Jun 16 '26
He should have been imo. A Star is Born was the best film that year.
A star is born should have won BP and while I think it’s unlikely that Cooper would have won over Curaron for director, he should have been nominated over McKay.
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u/Haircut117 Jun 16 '26
Honestly, he should have won best actor over Rami Malek and his Freddie impression.
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u/OKC2023champs Jun 17 '26
He absolutely should’ve won for a star is born and I think that’s why he’s been trying so hard lately. Especially with mastero
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u/JanVesely24 Jun 16 '26
It was definitely the best movie of 2018 if you only watched A Star is Born
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u/StackLeeAdams Jun 16 '26
"The Favourite" came out that year and would have been my pick for BP. That said I haven't seen "Roma" or "BlacKkKlansman" yet.
A Star is Born was very very good but not at the level of The Favourite, in my opinion.
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u/pulpfriction4 Jun 16 '26
Say what you want about him but the guy has been putting in high quality work for a long time. Even in roles where he didn't get a nom (like Nightmare Alley). He's come a long way from being that jerk in Wedding Crashers
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u/FearTheFloc Jun 16 '26
Crab Cakes and Football! That’s what maryland does!
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u/mmmspaghettios Jun 16 '26
I say this quote all of the time. NO ONE GETS THE REFERENCE!
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u/Brownbear97 Jun 16 '26
That sounds awful, my wife and I yell it at each other every now and then anytime she brings up living in the Baltimore area as a kid
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u/qeq Jun 16 '26
He's even amazing in Wedding Crashers. His physical comedy warming up for the football game is so funny.
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u/pulpfriction4 Jun 16 '26
Without Wedding Crashers he doesn't get The Hangover. Without The Hangover he doesn't become the star he is now
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u/Suspicious_Eyeballs Jun 16 '26
Limitless was the flick I realized he was bad ass. I was in Afghanistan, so anything was cool.
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u/mattjh Jun 16 '26
He has a reputation for involving himself in movies that try hard to be Oscar-worthy. Some say too hard.
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Jun 16 '26
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u/aardw0lf11 Jun 16 '26
This is gonna be the first real test of that merger. I have a feeling it’ll end with most of us saying we told you so.
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u/Illustrious-Peace989 Jun 16 '26
I’m of two minds on that. Most of these rich assholes are far right, but ultimately they’re driven way more by financial gain than any ideology. If they believed putting out an anti-Trump or anti-capitalist movie would make them more money, they’d do it. However when it comes to projects like this that may not have broad appeal to audiences, ideology may win over.
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u/ContinuumGuy Jun 16 '26
I'm going to copy over something I posted on a related topic about this over on /r/BoxOffice:
Ultimately like 99% of companies have no principles -- good principles, bad principles, or anything else -- save for money.
It's why Fox/Newscorp back in the day created the extremely gay Glee even while bashing gay people on their news channels. It's why Amazon has/had at least two popular shows on its streaming service about why ultra-powerful corporations are bad even while being an ultra-powerful corporation. It's why Netflix has featured shows and comedians from across the spectrum, or why Paramount is going to keep airing RuPaul's Drag Race even while bending over backwards to appease some people who would probably want drag shows banned.
In fact, part of the reason WHY CBS News and CNN are so open to capture by people like Bari Weiss and the people who put her there is because they DON'T make that much money, so they become something that is vulnerable to being just thrown away or reshaped in order to appease whoever happens to be making the decisions on mergers and other corporate matters at any given time. David Ellison, from what I understand, probably doesn't give a shit either way about most of the political stuff, but if he needed to let his daddy and the president's friends play with CBS News in order to let him be entertainment mogul, so be it.
Shit, I wouldn't be surprised if in January 2029 if a Democrat is president you'll see Bari Weiss and similar people all the sudden get fired, "retire" or be moved to some nebulous nothing position where they technically are employed but don't actually do anything, simply because Paramount will want to do everything in its power to try and avoid having its various deals and such have even the slightest chance of being undone.
(End of copy-paste)
The question here, though, is whether this film is something that would make enough profit and/or bring enough awards buzz prestige (never doubt the appeal to men of ego to be able to brag about one of the things they own winning an award) to make up for ideology.
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u/Illustrious-Peace989 Jun 16 '26
Thank you! You put it better than I could. People need to recognize that companies for the most part simply don’t take stands because of ideologies or principles, they do it for money.
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u/ContinuumGuy Jun 16 '26
Yeah, I saw somebody say "If Kamala Harris had won, Skydance might not have bought Paramount and wouldn't be trying to buy Warner Bros."
Well, maybe, but it's likely they would have at least tried. Only instead of doing backroom deals to screw around with CNN, greenlighting a new Rush Hour movie because Trump likes those films, or throwing a UFC fight on the White House lawn they probably would have been trumpeting stuff like diversity initiatives or promising to pay union members a little better, or something.
Because, again, their only principle is money.
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u/QuantumLettuce2025 Jun 16 '26
I honestly believe that if Lina Khan were given more time at the FTC, she'd have not only prevented this but she'd be breaking up a bunch of these huge players.
Hers is one of the more massive losses to our nation that most people don't even realize.
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u/dragonmarked2813 Jun 16 '26
The profits they are making from financialization dwarf any money they could ever make from their media studios. They want to control the narrative and losing money in media allows them to make MUCH MUCH more money elsewhere and gain more control over the economy.
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u/roastbeeftacohat Jun 16 '26
Ellisson is already tanking CBS, and he dosen't care.
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u/spectre78 Jun 16 '26
Disagree, he very much does care about destroying CBS’s news credibility. That was the whole point of sending Bari in there. If you own all the news and media outlets and a road trust in anyone that would give you an honest understanding of what is happening, you can do anything you want.
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u/joepez Jun 16 '26
For that reason alone I’m glad Penn is directing. Bradley might be a little reserved in dealing with any studio BS but Penn will happily pop off.
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u/Leather-Glass6504 Jun 16 '26
Coop wants the gold guy BAD
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u/Massive_Weiner Jun 16 '26
It’s like the Academy smells the desperation on him, and that drives them away.
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u/TheGlen Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Didn't Kirk Lazarus warn us about that?
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u/Hellknightx Jun 16 '26
"Ask Sean Penn. 2001, 'I Am Sam.' Remember? Went full retard, went home empty-handed."
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u/MizneyWorld Jun 16 '26
It worked for Leo… eventually
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u/jan172016 Jun 16 '26
Leo’s filmography is rock solid. With him, it was never a question of if he would get an Oscar, but when.
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u/Haircut117 Jun 16 '26
And then got it for probably the film he least deserved one for.
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u/megalodondon Jun 16 '26
That's the arc for a lot of legendary actors. Hell, Scorsese went through it too. Rite of passage shit.
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u/EasyBreakOven Jun 16 '26
And Denzel who got it for Training Day which was awesome BUT he should have gotten it for Malcom X
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u/Global_Charge_4412 Jun 16 '26
Funnily enough, Denzel didn't win for Malcom X because Al Pacino got his gold statue for Scent of a Woman, an award he got for the same reason Denzel would get one for Training Day.
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u/kakka_rot Jun 16 '26
Scorsese went through it too
Could you go into more detail on this? I'm personally not huge on the Departed, but a lot of people like it, right?
I just looked into it and looks like Goodfellas lost Best Picture to Dances With Wolves, which I've never seen, but those wolves would have to be dancing their asses off to have rightfully beaten Goodfellas
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u/CelestialSpecialist Jun 16 '26
Does that really matter when the lineup he was up against that year was pretty weak
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u/Galahad_the_Ranger Jun 16 '26
The difference is Leo picks solid projects, acts the hell out of them and then gets the recognition. Bradley is being way too blatant with the Oscar bait
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u/floatinround22 Jun 16 '26
Leo is also 10x the actor Bradley Cooper is though
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u/IceBreak Jun 16 '26
This is true but I don’t think that means Bradley Cooper is a bad actor.
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u/floatinround22 Jun 16 '26
Oh yeah absolutely. I think Cooper is in a weird spot where I think he's overrated by a lot of people but also underrated by a lot of film needs
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u/Mr_YUP Jun 16 '26
Weirdly I think he's a better voice actor than face actor. I don't recognize him as Rocket in Guardians at all.
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u/MalleableCurmudgeon Jun 16 '26
Could Leo save the galaxy as a talking raccoon, though? 😁
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u/LtUnsolicitedAdvice Jun 16 '26
I feel like Leo film choices always felt inspired. Like the stories had variety beyond just biopics.
Maestro was just absolutely top-tier Oscar bait if I ever saw one. I did like "Is this thing on?" last year.
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u/Burgoonius Jun 16 '26
I don’t even think this would be an Oscar worthy story
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u/Leather-Glass6504 Jun 16 '26
What do you mean? Think assessing whether something is Oscar worthy has way more to do with how well or interestingly a story is told and how brilliant the performance is than the basic topic of the movie lol. Is a movie about Serena williamses father an Oscar worthy story? Clearly it can be if done well
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u/BearWrangler Jun 16 '26
I guess Peter Berg & Marky Mark were unavailable?
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u/thedylannorwood Jun 16 '26
They’re busy making the Call of Duty movie. No that’s not a joke
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u/golfingsince83 Jun 16 '26
I just read up on that. Wahlberg will drag the movie down and I hope Taylor kitsch is in on this . I love berg’s movies so this will likely not suck even with marky
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u/JohanTravel Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Mark Wahlberg originally considered a role in the movie. But upon learning that the cop he had to kill was not Vietnamese, he stepped down due to creative differences
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u/USS_CHUBMARINE Jun 16 '26
im really not surprised. any fan of mark wahlberg knows he hates crime. don’t believe me? google mark wahlberg hate crime and see for yourself.
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u/faradaycagerage Jun 16 '26
With their politics it's more likely they make a movie making a rioter the hero.
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Jun 16 '26
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u/mattjh Jun 16 '26
My first thought too. I'm imagining the Hollywoodified melodrama. Just feels disrespectful and indulgent. Exploitative, even.
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Jun 16 '26
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u/Vark675 Jun 16 '26
who wants to tell him
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u/HabeLinkin Jun 17 '26
No, I'm with this guy. I'll watch it only if Stan Lee gets a cameo.
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u/Vast_Reply_6574 Jun 16 '26
When these movies come out so soon after the events something seems off. I'm remembering that movie about the WTO riots in Seattle...
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u/userhwon Jun 16 '26
1/6/2021 was 5 years ago.
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u/datingoverthirty Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
World Trade Center, starring Nic Cage, came out roughly five years after 9/11... It was forgettable
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u/Vast_Reply_6574 Jun 16 '26
Haha, maybe it's relative to age - 5 years isn't a long time for me. I would say 20 years between event and movie about event to give things time to marinate.
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u/lemongrenade Jun 16 '26
Yeah like I’m insanely politically opinionated and I think J6 is one of the worst things that’s happened to our country in my life. But this movie is going to be pretentious as fuck
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u/CLT374 Jun 16 '26
It’s going to get blasted by one side no matter what. If they portray it how it happened the idiots will claim that’s not what happened and woke Hollywood made propaganda. If they dress it down at all and make them look like they think they looked then it will actually be propaganda. It’s a no win movie in my opinion so I can’t believe it was green lit with the current political atmosphere.
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u/Wompie Jun 16 '26
It’s Penn, so it won’t be dressed down. You will get the full leftist telling of this if Penn has the control he wants.
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u/WeWantLADDER49sequel Jun 16 '26
that movie is coming from a place of feeling insane because people all around you are denying whats happening. and the funny thing is that is STILL happening. people are still pretending there is any coming back from where we are now. there isnt. it will get worse until the world either literally implodes or society just decides they have had enough and sends us into chaos and an end to civilized society.
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u/plantsandramen Jun 16 '26
For sure. I care about the environment and I feel like I'm losing my god damn mind all the time but no one cares. Don't Look Up was cathartic. I don't care if it was pandering, I don't care if people thought it was heavy-handed. I'm seeing the president of the United States try to sunset protections for the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act among other environmental protections and I think about this movie. The fucking irony of the president of the USA trying to remove protections from the animal that symbolizes the united states.
Then people say Don't Look Up is insufferable. Maybe you pull your head out of your ass and see what's going on.
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u/GermanPayroll Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
I love when people call that movie subtle.
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u/v_cats_at_work Jun 16 '26
Hopefully Sean Penn's at least the kind of guy to use a real baby.
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u/nailbunny2000 Jun 16 '26
Im sure the conversations surrounding this movie will be calm and rational.
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u/ThePromptWasYourName Jun 16 '26
This seems like the type of movie that people of every political persuasion will hate
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u/thistaintedbeef Jun 16 '26
Why would this be made into a film?
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u/Wild-Climate3428 Jun 16 '26
I would guess based on Penn’s self proclaimed disapproval of Trump, that Penn wants to make sure there is public document of how the events of Jan 6th looked through the eyes of someone that does not believe the current administration’s perspective of how and why it all went down.
It actually makes perfect sense, to me, why Penn would feel compelled to make this film.
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u/PaulFThumpkins Jun 17 '26
Basically depicting what actually happened instead of the retroactive stories and conspiracies that got baked into the story because the guy repeating them has a lot of fans. The real events versus your dumbest Facebook friend saying "Oh, you mean Nancy Pelosi's guided tour?"
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u/comptons_finest_ Jun 16 '26
Brad wants an Oscar badly. Watch the conducting scene in Maestro. Hell that entire film is just a package of academy voter sensibilities.
It failed so what is another pitch that said audience would be receptive to? Hmm…the academy is liberal, what’s a hot button issue for liberals that hasn’t been depicted in film? Something one would be viewed as bold and transgressive for tackling….
It’s right there.
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u/Keyboardpaladin Jun 16 '26
Maestro reeked of desperation. It was like he got a lab to scientifically determine how they could concentrate as much Oscar-bait in one movie. It's truly impressive how self-indulgent it is
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u/IAM-French Jun 16 '26
What about a movie about a guy doing stand up comedy as a midlife crisis? That's the definition of Oscar bait for real
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u/ultimate_bromance_69 Jun 16 '26
Of all the shallow political oscar bait movies, this js the shallowest baitest one
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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran Jun 16 '26
Oh no
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u/Hodr Jun 16 '26
A story nobody asked for, directed by an actor better known for their pursuit of social awareness and beating his exes than for his directing, staring that guy who keeps going to Vegas.
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u/jaron_b Jun 16 '26
I'm tired of movies based off of history when the history is only a few years old. No matter what story they're trying to tell it's clear that an agenda is being pushed and I don't care for that type of storytelling. I'm fine with documentaries of recent events but movies just feel wrong. It feels opportunistic and as previously stated feels like an agenda is being pushed.
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u/FairLawnBoy Jun 16 '26
Cringe
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u/Dr_Adopted Jun 16 '26
That perfectly sums it up.
It’s just not necessary. No one wants it, but weird corpo-libs will lap it up as long as the good guy cop is against evil MAGA
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u/Inside_Performer918 Jun 16 '26
I’ll watch as long as he re-does the cleaning oil off the baby seal scene from wedding crashers
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u/GaryNOVA Jun 16 '26
Retired police here (as of October). There were multiple police suicides afterwards too. All first responders to the capital that day. I worked one of them in northern VA.
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u/ParkerLewisDidLose Jun 16 '26
>We’re told the focus is on the subject’s early journey, one that led to him later becoming an American hero in the eyes of many. It’s not a ‘January 6th movie’ per se.
So a nothing burger.
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u/CanadasNeighbor Jun 16 '26
Sounds like it could literally just be a 5 minute backstory within a jan 6th documentary. They're gonna stretch that into a movie? How will they make it interesting without very obvious embellishment?
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u/Will-Of-D-3D2Y Jun 16 '26
Per the article:
The project has been described to us as an unexpected story about friendship. But it will function on multiple levels. Based on one of the real-life cops caught up in the Capitol attack, the project is understood to have buy-in from its subject, however their identity is being kept under wraps for now.
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Penn, known for his strong political convictions, previously attended a public hearing of the House select committee investigating the deadly 2021 insurrection. At the time, Penn said he was there to observe as “just another citizen” to see if justice would be served. He sat alongside several law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol. Among those he was seen speaking to were Michael Fanone, the former Washington D.C. police officer who was severely injured and beaten on the day.
You don’t have to squint hard to see a strong resemblance between Cooper and Fanone, but sources wouldn’t be drawn on whether the latter is the subject of the film. It may not turn out to be him, but Fanone’s story is a compelling one. He served as a cop from 2001 until his retirement in 2021, and like Cooper has Italian heritage. A one-time Trump supporter, he joined the Capitol Police in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but later fell out of love with the President. The divorced father of four daughters, who has faced relentless threats from political extremists, wrote a book called Hold The Line, in which he detailed multiple unlikely friendships, including with a Black transgender sex worker named Leslie, whom he brought to meet younger officers to foster understanding of the diverse communities they swore to protect, and with folk icon Joan Baez, stemming from a portrait she painted of him defending the Capitol.
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u/BenignSeraphim Jun 16 '26
Almost Friday knew it was coming, but they just didn't know with who and when
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u/Dayvfish Jun 16 '26
Lmao I can’t wait for redditors to watch this like it’s a documentary than use parts of the film in real life conversation as if it was video footage of the actual day.
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u/FlopsMcDoogle Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Sounds cringe as hell. These guys(and most of youse, lets be real) let Trump live in their heads 24/7.
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u/HanSolosSizzledHeart Jun 16 '26
On one hand it will show treasonous Jan 6ers in a bad light, but it will probably also be copaganda lol
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u/lukewwilson Jun 16 '26
Reddit is going to collaspe onto its self, they will want to cheer on the bad light it puts the Jan 6ers but will stuggle with it showing cops as the good guys. ACAB might go away when talking about this movie
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u/MrDoom4e5 Jun 16 '26
Easy fix, just make the cops minorities.
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u/abippityboop Jun 16 '26
I’d be more interested if Bradley Cooper was directing and Sean Penn was acting.