Watch Will Arnett star in trailer for Bradley Cooper’s new movie ‘Is This Thing On?’
The first teaser trailer for Bradley Cooper‘s version of British comedian John Bishop’s life has been released. In the trailer for Is This Thing On? Will Arnett cracks jokes while Laura Dern faces the seriousness of their crumbling marriage.
The movie stars Arnett in the lead role alongside 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.
The new trailer begins with Arnett drinking, downcast, in a bar, in which he puts his name down on a stand-up comedy sheet just for access to the bar. He awkwardly approaches the stage, and tells a lacklustre joke about his failing marriage, which receives an unexpectedly hearty round of laughter.
Later, Dern’s character addresses their relationship, stating, “A real relationship is finding somebody you can also be unhappy with. Somebody who has your back. We stopped having each other’s backs.”
In a similarly subdued, though much more humorous, scene, Arnett’s character faces criticism from his family who find out he is taking on comedy work. “I had no idea your life was this bad. This is why she threw you out!” his mother yells.
Scenes across New York are littered throughout the trailer, despite Bishop’s story hailing from Cheshire. However, true to the trailer, Bishop first performed in Manchester at the Frog and Bucket comedy club in 2000 after temporarily separating from his wife.
This will be Cooper’s third time in the director’s chair after the remake of A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga and 2023’s music biopic Maestro.
Is This Thing On? will close New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on October 10th. Cooper said of this opportunity, “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 film will be released in December. Watch the teaser trailer below.
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