“Maestro”: Read the script for the Leonard Bernstein biopic, orchestrated by Bradley Cooper

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series, which highlights the year’s most talked about screenplays, continues masterDirected, co-written, produced and starred: Bradley Cooper.

Kuiper wrote it master Notebook Headlight Oscar winner Josh Singer. The first film stars the legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, while the Netflix film tells the complex love story of Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan) – a story that spans more than thirty years. Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Josh Hamilton, Scott Ellis, Gideon Glick, Sam Nivola, Alexa Swinton and Miriam Shor also star.

master celebrated its world premiere with a nearly ten-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival and subsequently screened in New York, London and AFI. The film won the AFI Film of the Year Award and received eight Critics Choice nominations and four Golden Globe nominations. The film was also named a top film by both the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle.

master is Cooper’s directorial follow-up to the Oscar-winning film A star is born. He spent six years developing the project and told Deadline in November: “This film has ruined my time. It really is time.’ He said his obsession goes back further than the time he received the rights to Bernstein’s music and life from his family. He remembers asking Santa for the conductor’s baton as a child after seeing him in Bugs Bunny cartoons.

“I wanted to serve his legacy musically,” Cooper said. “The best thing is to tell a story that hopefully we can all relate to, all to the rhythm of his music.” The film is composed entirely to his music. “That’s the best way I can introduce this man to you.”

The film emerged from the research. Combing through their correspondence, private papers, home videos and the like, Cooper learned so much more about Lenny. As the classical music world well knew, Leonard Bernstein was bisexual and had homosexual relationships throughout his marriage to Felicia, a classically trained actress. But it was no marriage of convenience; It was a partnership of equals, albeit with bitter ups and downs. So Cooper went back to the Bernstein children and told them that this would be no ordinary biopic.

“To make a film,” he told them, “there has to be something different.” And I think what strikes me about your father’s story is the relationship between your parents.”

In his review, Pete Hammond of Deadline wrote: “This is a fascinating portrait that Bradley Cooper paints, and a choice that seems inspired… This is the work of a very confident filmmaker who brings a strong vision to the screen bring.”

Click below to read the script.