Antlers Director Scott Cooper Would Love To Make A Romantic Comedy Starring Christian Bale [Exclusive]
You might be under the belief that Christian Bale has never and will never appear in a romantic comedy, probably since that's pretty much exactly what he came out and said a few years back when he basically said "American Psycho" is the closest he'll ever get to one. The Oscar-winning actor saying "I was asked to do a romantic comedy recently and I thought they'd lost their minds" sounds as definitive as it gets, although we beg to differ considering that incredible ABC Family promo for "Batman Begins" that aired some time ago. But that doesn't mean filmmaker Scott Cooper, the director of the upcoming horror film "Antlers" and who previously worked with Bale on 2017's "Hostiles," isn't game to make one with Bale anyway.
As part of a larger interview with /Film's Jack Giroux, Cooper admitted that though this is his first formal entry into the horror genre, "Antlers" merely emphasizes what he's naturally gravitated towards for his whole career. "Hostiles" was billed as a revisionist Western, with Cooper telling /Film that:
"Christian Bale and I did discuss 'Hostiles' as a horror film because of the inhumane treatment towards Native Americans, the horrors of Rosamund Pike, losing her entire family and the difficulties of living in the American west. This is all to say ... that I need to try my hand at humor."
Not that anyone asked me, but what better way to reset than with a romantic comedy? Luckily, Cooper was posed this very same question and responded:
"Christian Bale and Scott Cooper's rom-com. We have discussed it."
Breaking news, folks! Remember where you heard it first.
"It May Happen"
Before "Hostiles," Scott Cooper and Christian Bale had previously collaborated together on 2013's "Out of the Furnace" and are set to team up again with the upcoming "The Pale Blue Eye." This puts Cooper in rarified air, as he pointed out to /Film that Bale has only ever worked with directors like himself, David O.Russell, Adam McKay, and a few others on multiple occasions. As he put it:
"We all get something very different from Christian, but I try to write from a very internal place tapping into all of the things that I know make him the incredible man that he is and somebody with a very rich, rich interior life. I have to say, Christian reads all my scripts whether he's in them or not and sees my early cuts. I thanked him for 'Antlers.' He makes me a better filmmaker."
So is the close bond the two have forged over the years enough to actually get Bale on board with a comedy of some kind? According to Cooper, it's more likely than you might think:
"Yeah, we have discussed it. And quite frankly, some of my friends who were very, very well-known comic actors are much more intense in real life and Christian's very playful but intense on screen when he needs to be. With Christian, my hope is that we get to make far more movies than just the three that we're making, because he has so much range and we both have such similar sensibilities and comedy is something that we love. So, who knows, Jack? It may happen."
There you have it, people. It's already bizarre enough that Bale will be joining the superhero world in "Thor: Love and Thunder," so how much weirder could it possibly be for him to jump on board a regular ol' comedy with Scott Cooper? Until then, you can catch Cooper's latest film, "Antlers," in theaters tomorrow, October 29, 2021.