Steven Spielberg Casts Bradley Cooper as New Frank Bullitt

Bradley Cooper at the premiere of 'American Sniper.'

Fittingly, given how speedy the character tends to be in his first movie, things are moving quickly for Steven Spielberg’s movie based around Frank Bullitt, as ironically brought to screens by Steve McQueen in 1968.

We brought you the news in February that Spielberg was developing a new movie that would take the hard-nosed policeman and bring him to a new story for Warner Bros.

Deadline has now heard that Bradley Cooper is closing a deal to play the man, putting his own impressive charisma up against McQueen’s. Quite the challenge…

In Peter Yates’ original movie, the story finds ambitious Senator Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) aiming to take down mob boss Pete Ross (Vic Tayback) with the help of testimony from the criminal's hothead brother Johnny (Pat Renella). The witness is in protective custody in San Francisco under the watch of police lieutenant Frank Bullitt (McQueen). When a pair of mob hitmen enter the scene, Bullitt follows their trail through a maze of complications and double-crosses.

The result is widely regarded as one of the most iconic car chases in movie history, barreling through the streets of San Francisco and jumping its many hills, all scored with Lalo Schifrin’s memorable music.

Steve McQueen in 1968's 'Bullitt.'

No details have been released about what the new film will find Bullitt doing, but chances are it’ll involve fast cars, hard knocks and plenty of action. Josh Springer, who wrote ‘The Post’ for Spielberg, is developing the script with the director.

This marks Spielberg and Cooper finding a way to work directly together at last after a couple of false starts. Spielberg was originally aboard ‘American Sniper’ (which starred Cooper) before leaving ahead of shooting, to be replaced by Clint Eastwood. Then there’s the more recent ‘Maestro’, about legendary composer Leonard Bernstein.

As with ‘Sniper’, Spielberg was considering directing, but began to reconsider. And after seeing how Cooper handled calling the shots (and starring) in the Oscar-winning ‘A Star is Born’, he was confident in handing the reins over to the actor, who pulled double duty on the biopic. It’ll be out via Netflix next year.

And this potential ‘Bullitt’ collaboration has been rumbling for a while like the engine of a 1968 Ford Mustang. Spielberg and Cooper apparently spent time spit-balling what might make for a good outing during the pandemic (presumably over zoom like everyone else) and figuring out whether it’s something they wanted to work on.

Looks like they worked it all out, though the movie is still just in development for now.

As for Spielberg, his semi-autobiographical drama ‘The Fabelmans’ is on limited release now, ahead of a wider platform schedule next week.

(L to R) Gabriel LaBelle and co-writer/producer/director Steven Spielberg on the set of 'The Fabelmans.'