Omar Sy, Bradley Cooper in talks to do Derek Cianfrance’s ‘Chef’Posted by Wilson Morales
January 30, 2013
Source: Variety
Omar Sy, the breakthrough star of “The Intouchables,” and Bradley Cooper, whose perf in “Silver Linings Playbook” has earned him an Oscar nom, are in discussions to topline in The Weinstein Company-backed culinary comedy “Chef” (working title). Pic would be Sy’s first role in an English-language film.
Produced by IM Global, the project — currently in development — was unveiled at the American Film Market by TWC, which has international distribution rights.
Derek Cianfrance, who directed Cooper in “The Place Beyond the Pines,” is set to helm, and “Eastern Promises” scribe Steven Knight will pen the screenplay.
Cooper would star as a disgraced chef who, after losing his Michelin-rated restaurant in Paris, decides to bring his crew back together in an attempt to create the best restaurant ever in London.
The role would be a natural fit for Cooper, who starred as a chef making a career comeback in Fox’s sitcom “Kitchen Confidential.”
While in France to promote “Silver Linings Playbook,” Cooper, who is highly popular in Gaul, mentioned the project and the possibility of co-starring with Sy to local radio station RTL.
“We’ve been talking about this project. I want to do it. It’s a beautiful story. And I love cooking,” Cooper told RTL in fluent French.
Copper nevertheless suggested that if he were to star in the film it wouldn’t lense in the coming months. “I’m going to make another film in March and after that I think I’m going to take a break and stay in Paris for Roland Garros (the tennis tournament set in late May).”
Sy, who moved to Los Angeles last year, has recently been attached to take the lead role in “Chocolat,” a French-language biopic of Rafael Padilla, a former slave born in Cuba who became the first black artist in France during the Belle Epoque era. It will lense in spring 2014.
The Golden Globe-nommed “The Intouchables,” which TWC released in the U.S., was a wordwide B.O. phenom.
