Is Bradley Cooper The Next George Clooney?

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Is Bradley Cooper The Next George Clooney?

Bradley Cooper has a new movie opening this weekend but you’re forgiven if you didn’t know that. The Words is a tiny film that stars Cooper as a writer who steals another man’s manuscript. Costarring Zoe Saldana and Jeremy Irons, the film cost only $6 million to make and is being dumped on what is typically one of the slowest movie weekends of the year. Exhibitor Relations expects the film to earn$7 million this weekend.

It’s a far cry from 2009′s The Hangover which earned $468 million on a budget of $35 million and catapulted Cooper to the kind of fame that most stars only dream about. Many in Hollywood predicted he would be the next big thing.

But Cooper is taking a zig-zag path to the big time. He’s practicing the George Clooney method of career-buidling: one for them, one for me. Until recently, Clooney balanced big budget fare, like Ocean’s Eleven, with more personal films, like Good Night and Good Luck, taking the payday from one to finance the other.

Last year, Cooper’s films Limitless and The Hangover Part II earned a combined $742 million. But instead of continuing to focus on big studio films where he could demand as much as $8 million per movie, Cooper is taking some time to work on smaller, potentially more prestigious, films.

The Words probably isn’t the film that’s going to win him an Oscar. It earns a horrible 18 out of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes. He has gotten some critical praise for the tiny film Hit & Run where he plays a dreadlocked bank robber, but it hasn’t been enough to get anyone to see the movie which has only grossed $11 million to date.

His best chance for a gold statue is with the upcoming film The Silver Linings Playbook. Cooper stars as a former teacher just out of a mental hospital who goes back to live with his parents. Sounds depressing but it looks funny and it’s from director David O. Russell who’s last big film was the Oscar-winning The Fighter. It also costars the hottest young actress of the year: Jennifer Lawrence.

The film, which hits theaters in November, is already getting good buzz and could give Cooper the serious recognition he is clearly craving. As for the money, well The Hangover Part III is slated for 2013. And if he wants his quote to get higher, he’ll have to throw some more studio films in the mix. In the past few years Clooney has stuck exclusively with smaller films like Up In The Air and The Descendants. But even he is going back to the big money. His next film is Gravity from Warner Bros where he’ll costar with Sandra Bullock.