{"id":740407,"date":"2026-06-16T15:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T15:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/740407\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T15:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T15:30:09","slug":"senn-penn-directing-january-6-drama-bradley-cooper-starring-as-cop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/740407\/","title":{"rendered":"Senn Penn Directing January 6 Drama, Bradley Cooper Starring as Cop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSean Penn<\/a> will direct a film about the early life of a cop who was present for the Jan. 6 storming of the United States Capitol. Bradley Cooper<\/a> is being eyed for the lead role, though the real life inspiration for the film has yet to be identified. The film is currently untitled and has been set up at Warner Bros. It is described as \u201can unexpected story about friendship,\u201d which needs a little work as a marketing hook and seems like a clear attempt to minimize any future controversy.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo that end, insiders insist the film is not really about Jan. 6 and is only tangentially related to the attacks. Despite that spin, it\u2019s unclear how this project will play with David Ellison<\/a> and the team at Paramount who are poised to buy Warner Bros. Discovery now that the Justice Department has cleared their merger. Ellison has made a point of highlighting his family\u2019s ties to Donald Trump, hosting a dinner for the president and members of his administration in April and showing up at the UFC fight that was held at the White House last weekend. That event, which was held on Trump\u2019s 80th birthday, was broadcast on Paramount+, Ellison\u2019s streaming service. Penn, who has called Trump \u201can enemy of mankind,\u201d is of a different political persuasion.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor recently won his third Oscar for \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d which Warner Bros. produced. Penn also won Oscars for his performances in \u201cMystic River\u201d and \u201cMilk.\u201d His credits include \u201cDead Man Walking\u201d and \u201cSweet and Lowdown,\u201d but he has been busy behind the camera over the course of his career. As a director, Penn\u2019s films include \u201cThe Indian Runner,\u201d \u201cInto the Wild\u201d and \u201cThe Pledge.\u201d Penn wrote the script for his Jan. 6 film and will produce with John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth under their Projected Picture Works banner. Production is targeting a mid-2027 start.<\/p>\n

\n\tCooper is also an acclaimed director, with Penn publicly praising his work on \u201cA Star is Born.\u201d The actor most recently directed and appeared in \u201cIs This Thing On?\u201d and also starred in and directed \u201cMaestro.\u201d Cooper\u2019s credits include \u201cAmerican Sniper,\u201d \u201cThe Hangover\u201d and the upcoming \u201cOcean\u2019s 11\u201d prequel, in which he will star with Margot Robbie. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal with Warner Bros. was negotiated by CAA Media Finance. Penn and Projected Picture Works are represented by CAA; Cooper is represented by Range Media Partners. Deadline broke the news of Penn\u2019s next project. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Penn will direct a film about the early life of a cop who was present for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,14153,20552,134,211596,344,80327],"class_list":["post-740407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bradley-cooper","tag-david-ellison","tag-entertainment","tag-january-6","tag-movies","tag-sean-penn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}