Bradley Cooper’s ‘Is This Thing On?’, based on John Bishop’s life, to close New York Film Festival
Bradley Cooper‘s new movie, Is This Thing On?, is set to premiere at the New York Film Festival in October and close the prestigious event.
The movie stars Will Arnett in the lead role alongside Laura Dern, who plays his character’s ex-wife. Cooper, Andra Day, Christine Ebersole, Ciarán Hinds, Sean Hayes, Peyton Manning and Amy Sedaris are also part of the cast.
For British comedy fans, the story told in Is This Thing On? will be a familiar tale as it is loosely based on the life of arena-dwelling stand-up comedian John Bishop.
Before stepping onto the stage for the first time, aged 33, Bishop already had a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry. However, his marriage broke down at this time, and he turned to stand-up as an escape, which later became his full-time career, as well as unexpectedly changing the course of his personal life.
While key aspects of his story have been changed for Is This Thing On?, such as the film being set in New York’s West Village rather than Cheshire, it was a meeting between Bishop and Arnett that led to the movie being made.
During an episode of his Smartless podcast, Arnett explained his connection to the Scouse comedian to co-hosts Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes: “I met John by chance. He told me the story of how he became a stand-up comedian, which is kind of an interesting story.”
Arnett continued: “It was by mistake. He was separated from his wife, and they were getting divorced, and he went to go for a drink, and they were charging a cover because it was an open mic night. He put his name down just so he could get in.”
In a statement, Cooper said of bringing the movie to the New York Film Festival: “We are honored and humbled to premiere our film at the New York Film Festival. Earlier this year we had the wonderful opportunity to shoot this story all throughout the city, so it’s very exciting to debut it on the closing evening of the festival.”
The director, who also appears in the movie, continued: “NYC injects an energy into every aspect of filmmaking that just can’t be replicated. I have attended many premieres at NYFF over the years and to have the support and belief in our film from [NYFF artistic director] Dennis Lim and his team is an enormous thing for us. Thank you! On behalf of Will, Laura and the entire cast and crew—we can’t wait.”
Is This Thing On? will close New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on October 10th.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.