Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale are both reportedly in talks to star in a new Cold War thriller, Best of Enemies.
According to Jeff Sneider’s The InSneider, Cooper and Bale are both being eyed to star in a new Cold War thriller, Best of Enemies, which is based on Gus Russo and Eric Dezenhall’s 2018 Best of Enemies: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War novel.
Russo and Dezenhall’s novel is set in the late 1970s and follows the CIA’s Jack Platt and KGB’s Gennady Vasilenko, two spies working for opposing countries during the Cold War. The two are initially tasked with seducing one another into betraying their home country; against all odds, however, they wound up becoming the best of friends.
Cooper is reportedly being considered for Platt’s role, while Bale would play Vasilenko. A director is not currently attached to the film, though Sneider’s report mentions Cooper may potentially be interested in helming the project.
Who is writing Best of Enemies?
Eric Warren Singer is writing the script. Singer previously wrote 2013’s American Hustle, which also starred Cooper and Bale (alongside Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, and Jeremy Renner). Singer also co-wrote the screenplay for 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.
In the meantime, Cooper’s new film, Maestro, is currently playing in limited theaters across the United States before it hits Netflix on December 20, 2023. Along with directing, Cooper also stars in the Leonard Bernstein biopic alongside Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, and Sarah Silverman. Cooper also reprised his role as Rocket Raccoon earlier this year in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and made a brief cameo appearance in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Bale, meanwhile, most recently starred in 2022’s The Pale Blue Eye. He also voices a character in the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, which is now playing in theaters.
