Why is Bradley Cooper making a Hollywood film about John Bishop?

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Bradley Cooper is, in fact, making a film about John Bishop.

Starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern, Is This Thing On? is loosely based on how Liverpudlian comic Bishop began his career in comedy.

It screened at this year’s BFI London Film Festival and has received rave reviews from critics, sitting at an impressive 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Metro’s review of the poignant comedy drama dubbed the film ‘a polished, funny and poignant film about the best kind of mid-life crisis to have’.

In their review, HeyUGuys said: ‘A beautifully observed story about love, loss, and the slow, uneven process of finding yourself again.’

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph wrote: ‘After A Star is Born and Maestro, this is proof that a Cooper film can be loose, funny and a good deal less grandiose than those – and that he’s capable of getting a superb performance from another male lead, while taking a back seat himself.’

Intrigued? Here’s everything you need to know about Is This Thing On? and how Cooper became familiar with his unlikely film subject.

What is Is This Thing On? about?

Is This Thing On? is loosely inspired by the life of Bishop and focuses on comedian Alex (Will Arnett) and his wife Tess (Laura Dern) during their split.

A synopsis teases: ‘As their marriage quietly unravels, Alex faces middle age and an impending divorce, seeking new purpose in the New York comedy scene while Tess confronts the sacrifices she made for their family, forcing them to navigate co-parenting, identity, and whether love can take a new form.’

Along with Arnett and Dern, the film also stars Cooper himself, as well as Andra Day, Amy Sedaris, Sean Hayes, and Ciarán Hinds.

Cooper co-wrote the film alongside Arnett and Mark Chappell, explaining the film’s bizarre inspiration from how Bishop’s career began.

Speaking to PA at the BFI London Film Festival this year, he said: ‘It’s inspired by John Bishop’s story, so that was the nugget of it, and then he [Will] was working on that with John, and he was just telling me about it because we were friends.

‘And I just sort of saw this image of him, and I got excited about “What if we set it in New York, and what if it’s a movie about a relationship?”‘

Speaking to Vanity Fair, he added: ‘I think that something interesting that I wanted to explore is that this guy’s able to be honest with a room full of strangers in a way that he wasn’t able to be before.’

What has John Bishop said about the film?

Bishop has admitted that it is ‘surreal’ that the story about how he began his comedy career has been turned into a Hollywood blockbuster.

He told the Liverpool Echo at the film’s premiere: ‘You look down the [red carpet], Bradley Cooper is there, Laura Dern is there, Will Arnett is there. These people are in a movie inspired by what happened to me. It is bizarre..

‘But the most bizarre thing is to be talking to the Echo on the red carpet.’

He continued: ‘This is completely going full circle, to talk about it on stage, to be at this movie [premiere], and then to be actually doing the job. I never thought I’d be doing this job.

‘Twenty-five years ago, I never even thought I’d be doing comedy as a job, so that would be a surprise. But, to be here [on the red carpet], I’d have said to myself, buy a lottery ticket, this is your week kidda.’

Producer Tim Thykier told The Independent how he heard Bishop’s story: ‘I asked him about how he got into comedy because I hadn’t really heard the story. And he told it to me, and I said, “Okay, well that’s a movie.”

‘It didn’t become a very small British story, but something that was more universal.’

Is This Thing On? screened at the London Film Festival on October 14, 15 and 19. It’s set to be released in us cinemas on December 19 and in the UK on January 30, 2026.

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