James Gunn Cast Bradley Cooper for ‘Superman' Cameo Because He ‘Could Walk in the Footsteps' of Brando
Just minutes into the movie, Cooper appears as Jor-El — yes, Supes' dad, who was once embodied by the legendary Marlon Brando (and his interesting pronunciation of 'Krypton'). Alongside 'Westworld' star Angela Sarafyan as the hero's mother Lara, he appears in a pre-recorded message to his son that Superman discovers in the Fortress of Solitude.
More from IndieWire
'Practical Magic 2' - Everything We Know So Far
Karlovy Vary Reveals 2025 Festival Winners, with Films from Iran, Czech Republic, and More
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Gunn said he was intent on casting an actor of Brando's magnitude for his version of 'Superman.' 'I needed somebody who could play Jor-El, who had the stature of what we imagine that character to be,' Gunn told 'ET' (via Esquire). 'Somebody that could walk in the footsteps of Marlon Brando.'
Writer/director James Gunn has a long history with Cooper, who, of course, was Rocket in the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' series. So, it didn't take much arm-twisting when Gunn made a call to the Oscar-nominated multi-hyphenate.
'Really, Bradley's just doing me a favor,' Gunn said on Jake's Takes (via People). 'He's a friend. We've stayed in close contact since the Guardians movies, and I admire him greatly as an actor and as a director.' In fact, Gunn literally called and said, 'Hey, will you do me a favor? Come down, go to England, we're going to shoot you in a 3D environment, make a hologram of you, and you can play Jor-El.'
Cooper, according to Gunn, just replied 'OK,' and that was that.
The 'Maestro' actor/writer/director followed in the footsteps of not just Brando — who was so identified with the character he reprised him from beyond the grave in 'Superman Returns' — but also Russell Crowe and Angus Macfadyen. When asked if Cooper might return for additional DC Studios movies, Gunn coyly responded with, 'You never know. It's possible.'
If the box office receipts so far are any indication, then Cooper's second appearance seems inevitable.
Best of IndieWire
Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See
'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie
Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How ‘KPop Demon Hunters' Conquered the Summer — And What's Next for the ‘Pop Culture Phenomenon'
Two Saturdays ago, three of Jim Roppo's kids fired up KPop Demon Hunters during its opening weekend on Netflix, unaware that their dad, the Chairman/CEO of Republic Records, had anything to do with the movie or its soundtrack. Then, they watched it again. And again. 'My kids watched this movie three-and-a-half times in 24 hours,' Roppo tells Billboard of his 12-year-old, 13-year-old and 15-year-old children. And the next day, they started blasting the songs from the soundtrack. More from Billboard Here's Which 'KPop Demon Hunters' Song Will Be Entered for 2026 Oscars — and What It Would Mean If It's Nominated The Iconic Lacoste Polo Is 60% Off With This Amazon Prime Day Deal Free People's Viral Barrel Jeans Have the Internet Divided Over Their Stylishness (and They're Almost Out of Stock) Roppo noted this behavior from 'my own little home test-market group,' he says with a laugh, while also seeing how well KPop Demon Hunters was performing on Netflix, and the eyebrow-raising early streaming numbers from the soundtrack. Before the end of the weekend, 'I started ringing all the alarms across the company, with all of our partners and teams,' recalls Roppo — what once had piqued the interest of his family was quickly becoming a global smash. Since that opening weekend, millions of new viewers have watched KPop Demon Hunters, an animated musical about a fictional K-pop girl group, HUNTR/X, who secretly slay demon spirits when they're not dazzling arena audiences. Two and a half weeks after the film was released on June 20, KPop Demon Hunters remains atop Netflix's global top 10 movies list. And its soundtrack, which was released simultaneously, has surged higher on the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 8 and moving up to No. 3 in its second week, with 62,000 equivalent album units — a 97% increase from Week 1 to Week 2, according to Luminate. When a soundtrack to an animated musical displays that type of growth, the culprit is usually a standout song or two — think 'Let It Go' from Frozen. But KPop Demon Hunters is a phenomenon more reminiscent of 2021's Hot 100-blanketing Encanto soundtrack, with seven songs from the soundtrack appearing on this week's chart, led by the HUNTR/X anthem 'Golden' at No. 23 and 'Your Idol,' from their villainous boy band counterpart Saja Boys, at No. 31. Both songs have hovered near the top of daily U.S. and global streaming listings for days, but so have HUNTR/X's hammering opener 'How It's Done,' the sticky-sweet boy band song 'Soda Pop' and the pivotal ballad 'What It Sounds Like,' all of which are currently in the top 11 of Spotify's Daily Top Songs USA chart. 'It's seven or eight songs deep — not just in America, and not just on one platform,' Roppo says of the set's bench depth, also nodding to the strength of the two songs from K-pop superstars TWICE that appear on the soundtrack. 'There's no one who could tell you they predicted this.' That includes Ian Eisendrath, the film's executive music producer. 'I've always believed in the songs, and thought they would pop,' Eisendrath says, 'but not like this.' Eisendrath says that the music for the Sony Pictures Animation and Netflix film was developed over a three-year period, after being approached by Sony Motion Pictures Group's music president Spring Aspers for the project. A veteran music director for film, TV and theater — with credits ranging from Disney's recent Snow White remake to Broadway's Come From Away — Eisendrath says that he was already a big K-pop fan, and felt like the 'high-drama' music would naturally translate to an animated musical. 'It just felt so cinematic, so big,' he says. 'The production is immense, intense and multi-layered, and that's the kind of sound you want in a film.' He worked closely with film co-directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans — and several K-pop songwriters and musicians — to capture that gravity in the film's various songs. Instead of functioning as the vision of a lone creative steward a la Alan Menken or Lin-Manuel Miranda, the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack was assembled by a sprawling team of pop and K-pop studio experts — including The Black Label's Teddy Park, 24, IDO, Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk — and vocal talents behind HUNTR/X (EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI) and Saja Boys (Andrew Choi, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee and Neckwav). Across all of the musical players, the goal was the same: create K-pop songs that could work within the Demon Hunters narrative, and stand on their own outside of the story. 'The songs were always functioning in both aspects,' Eisendrath explains, 'as truly relevant K-pop songs, created by K-pop makers, that add to the overall narrative within the film, and as singles that are just universal pop songs.' As the film and its music were being finalized, Republic Records was made aware of the project roughly a year ago, according to Roppo, thanks to Savan Kotecha, the veteran pop producer-songwriter (One Direction, Ariana Grande) now serving as the head of the newly formed label Visva Records. Sony Pictures' Aspers originally brought KPop Demon Hunters to Visva, and Kotecha looped in Republic to partner on the soundtrack. 'The vision behind the film and the uniqueness of the music felt electric from day one,' Kotecha says in a statement. Meanwhile, TWICE was looped into the project thanks to Republic's partnership with JYP Entertainment Corporation on the best-selling K-pop girl group's studio output. In addition to TWICE's previously released song 'Strategy' appearing on the soundtrack, the group recorded their own version of the HUNTR/X diss song 'Takedown,' and their group moniker appears in the film multiple times. 'It meant a lot to all of us, says Eisendrath, 'when they were willing to sign on and sing one of these songs — that felt like such an authentication of what we were doing.' Upon the film's June 20 release, Roppo says that the soundtrack's cross-platform activity reminded him of Encanto becoming a home-video sensation during the pandemic. As such, the entire Republic promotional apparatus sprang into action. 'We've built a machine to not only detect these early signals, but maximize opportunities very, very quickly,' he says. Following the soundtrack's second-week streaming explosion, Republic hustled to have 'Golden' impact top 40 radio stations on Tuesday (July 8), as the song 'that we feel has the most mainstream pop opportunity and appeal,' says Roppo. Multiple physical versions of the soundtrack are now available for pre-order, as is a 7-inch single featuring both versions of 'Takedown' that ships later this week. And Roppo says that the team is discussing potential remixes of 'Golden,' with some 'A-list remixers' in play for a new version of the soundtrack's biggest hit so far. The summer of KPop Demon Hunters is just getting started, considering the global enormity of Netflix — which has an estimated 300 million viewers — and the fact that, unlike viral synchs from Stranger Things and Wednesday in recent years, the music appears throughout a 100-minute family film instead of showing up multiple episodes into an adult-leaning series. Yet Roppo says that some of the most encouraging internal data points he's seen about the film is its viewership in the 18-to-44 demographic — as well as its appeal with viewers who did not previously watch any K-pop content on the platform. 'It has crossed the rubicon globally,' says Roppo. 'This is not a K-pop phenomenon. Now, it's a pop culture phenomenon.' Best of Billboard Kelly Clarkson, Michael Buble, Pentatonix & Train Will Bring Their Holiday Hits to iHeart Christmas Concert Fox Plans NFT Debut With $20 'Masked Singer' Collectibles 14 Things That Changed (or Didn't) at Farm Aid 2021
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What to know for the PGA Tour Champions Dick's Open
ENDICOTT, N.Y. — With the countdown to the Dick's Open in full swing, it's time to take a dive into what this year's event will bring. With Maroon 5 headlining Friday night's opening round and a family night firework show set for Saturday, the Dick's Open will be packed with more than just Hall of Fame-quality golf. Advertisement Here's a look into what to expect heading into the tournament at En-Joie Golf Course. Event Schedule The Dick's Open is set in two parts: The Pro-Am and the weekend tournament. The Pro-Am is a two-day, double shotgun style tournament on July 9 and 10. For new golf fans, a Pro-Am is an event that lets amateur golfers play alongside the professionals and some celebrities. It's a common event in the PGA world, and in some cases, the pros will take part in the event for charity purposes. Padrig Harrington tees of on 16 and finished at minus-4 for the day to win his third straight Dick's Sporting Goods Open championship, June 23, 2024. The draw party for this year's Pro-Am is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30. The pairings for the tournament will be made then, with the first round in set for Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. Advertisement The public are able to attend both rounds of the Pro-Am. The Dick's Open website says that autographs with the professionals and other guests are allowed, but at the professionals' discretion. Then comes Friday, when the first round of the PGA Tour Champions Dick's Open begins. Gates open at 8 a.m., and golfers participating will play the entire course ahead of the evening concert. Maroon 5 is scheduled to take the stage on the 18th Green around 9 p.m. Maroon 5 will perform in Endicott Friday night as part of the Dick's Open festivities. Saturday's second round is free to the public, and everything will be a first come, first serve basis. The tournament gates will also open at 8 a.m. Following the conclusion of the second round, there will be an outdoor movie night for families, with Disney's 'Lilo and Stitch' and a firework show. The movie night is also free for all attendees. Advertisement Sunday's championship round will be a ticketed event, and a sunrise yoga session will take place prior to the gates opening. Tickets for the sunrise yoga are available on the Dick's Open website. The new Dick's Open champion will be crowned on the 18th Green. Tickets Single-day tickets for the entire tournament are available on Ticketmaster. Saturday's second round is free to the public. Action from round 1 of the Dick's Sporting Goods Open at En-Joie golf course According to the tournament's website, re-entry will only be allowed on Friday between the end of the tournament and the Maroon 5 concert. Patrons are expected to retrieve a wrist band at the front entrance in order to re-enter the golf course for the concert that evening. Advertisement Those looking for more upscale experiences throughout the tournament can find multi-tiered options on the tournament's website. VIP tickets are only available for purchase by calling the tournament's office. General admission tickets can be purchased day-of, but not in person. Fan Experience Patrons attending the tournament are expected to follow all standard PGA Tour policies. This includes a clear bag policy, dress code and mobile device policies. The tournament's website says that phones may be used for photos and videos throughout the tournament, but no flash photography. There are designated places for patrons to take phone calls throughout the course, and phones must be on silent at all times. Advertisement There will be daily spectator guides available upon arrival to the course everyday. These guides will include daily pairings and tee times. Concession stands are available throughout the course, including along the 4th and 9th tee and the 17th green. The main concourse and the 1st Fairway will also have refreshments available for general admission. All concession stands will take cash and card for payment. John Daly putts during the final round of the Dick's Sporting Goods Open on June 23, 2024 at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, NY. Accessibility The tournament's website states that guests should be prepared to walk the course throughout the day, and to bring sunscreen, sunglasses and umbrellas with them onto the course. In the event of inclement weather, the tournament will post updates on its social media accounts, as well as make announcements on the course. Suspension of play will not always mean the remainder of the day is cancelled — cancellations will be made as its own announcement. Advertisement Official pairings for the first round of the tournament will be announced later this week. This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: What to know for the PGA Tour Champions Dick's Open
New York Times
17 minutes ago
- New York Times
Chelsea 3 PSG 0: Palmer's brilliance, total prize money, President Trump and MetLife's dress rehearsal
Cole Palmer inspired Chelsea to a surprisingly dominant victory in the Club World Cup final, defeating Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium. Kick-off was delayed by eight minutes at the stadium that will hold next summer's World Cup final as the showpiece match in FIFA's expanded club competition was preceded by a military flyover, the national anthem (with President Trump in attendance) and various performers. Advertisement Palmer, who had struggled to find his early-season form in the second half of the campaign, scored two brilliant first-half goals as the Premier League club's new-look attack was too much for their Ligue 1 opponents. To make matters worse, they had Joao Neves sent off late on after being spotted by VAR tugging on Marc Cucurella's hair. PSG had only conceded three goals twice in a game in 2024-25, but Chelsea swept them aside in a brilliant first 45 minutes to claim the title and with it more than $100million in prize money. Oliver Kay, Mark Carey and Tim Spiers break down the action from New Jersey's MetLife Stadium. If anything, this is conclusive proof the Conference League is the best and toughest competition in the world. Look, people may try and besmirch Chelsea's pretty remarkable success by saying this is a competition teams didn't take seriously (which isn't true) or that fatigue has been an issue (it's been the same for everybody). In reality, you can't downplay or understate Chelsea's achievement here. After Cole Palmer, who once again proved to be the big player for the big stage, the most credit must go to Enzo Maresca, who just a few weeks ago looked on very dodgy ground with many fans feeling he wasn't the best fit for the Blues, particularly with his insistence on playing out from the back which was seriously trying the patience of the Stamford Bridge faithful. However, in a similar vein to Ange Postecoglou changing Tottenham Hotspur's approach and winning a trophy in the process, Chelsea cut out the nonsense at the back here and employed a simple high press and stuck some classic long balls over the top of PSG's confused defence. It worked a treat and showed Maresca is tactically flexible. He has gone from being a possible sacking contender this summer (hey, this is Chelsea, you can still never say never) to qualifying for the Champions League and winning two trophies in the space of two months. Advertisement And Chelsea suddenly look capable of being able to aim even higher next season. Best team in the world? No, this result was a huge surprise and if they played the match again tomorrow you'd probably get a different result. Best team in England? Still no. But something special may not be too far down the line on this evidence. Chelsea's young guns are blooming. Tim Spiers With a star-studded PSG line-up arriving at the MetLife stadium as heavy favourites, there was one Chelsea player in particular who wanted a word. Cole Palmer is unassuming in his off-field demeanour, but it was the 23-year-old lad from Wythenshawe who shone brightest on Sunday afternoon as he almost single-handedly shattered Parisian spirits. Remarkably, his two first-half goals were near-carbon copy finishes as he arrived on the edge of the box to convert. For the second counter-attacking finish, Palmer darted away on the right flank before getting the ball out of his feet, offering a shimmy and a shake, before passing it coolly — yes, ice coolly — into the bottom corner, just as he did only minutes before. Who needs power against a 6ft 5in Gianluigi Donnarumma when you can pass it in the net so accurately? In truth, a lot of the space that Palmer was able to find was thanks to the movement and selfless runs of his team-mates. Yes, his own movement and appreciation of space is one of the best among his peers, but this Chelsea side is set up to get the most out of their No 10 and Sunday's performance was the perfect example of it working. Given the up-and-down season he has had, Palmer has reserved some of his best form for the big stage this summer. Whether he plays on the left or right half space of Chelsea's attack, he impacts games more than any of his anyone who might have doubted him when his performances dipped in recent months, more fool you. Mark Carey 'Sixty-three Super Bowls in one month!' That was the claim from FIFA president Gianni Infantino before the Club World Cup began, promising — or perhaps threat should be threatening — that every game at this tournament would be preceded with the kind of razzmatazz for which NFL's annual showpiece is known. Advertisement It hasn't really felt like that for the most part, with some of the gimmicks like individual pre-match walk-outs falling flat. But the final at MetLife Stadium certainly felt like a showpiece event, complete with a half-time show featuring J Balvin, Tems, Doja Cat, Emmanuel Kelly and Coldplay's Chris Martin and a firework display that would shame many a New Year's Eve event. Football has been heading cautiously in that direction with Champions League and World Cup finals in recent years, but this — whether for better or worse, depending on your perspective — was a different level. It began to feel as if this was a FIFA showpiece event built around a football match rather than the other way around. As for the pre-match ceremony, there were some audible boos from the crowd when President Trump appeared on the big screen during the singing of 'The Star-Spangled Banner'. Still, Trump, sitting near Infantino in the VIP section, appeared to enjoy the occasion. 'I am having a really great time,' he told DAZN. 'Tremendous sport.' The match kicked off eight minutes late and, even after that, the half-time interval stretched to 24 minutes rather than the standard 15. It's football, Gianni, but not as we know it. Oliver Kay It was not just silverware that Enzo Maresca's side picked up in the U.S., they also improved their financial situation by taking home more than $100million in prize money. Though the club will not be taking part in their usual lucrative pre-season tour due to their participation in the Club World Cup, winning FIFA's expanded club competition should ease the pain. As shown in the table below, Chelsea take home an estimated $114.6m from winning the tournament, which puts them just ahead of runners-up PSG, who take home $106.9m and Real Madrid with $82.5m. Chris Weatherspoon For all Chelsea's ruthlessness in putting PSG to the sword, this was a completely unexpected no-show from a team that had previously scored 16 goals and conceded one throughout the tournament. Conceding three goals in 45 minutes felt like by some distance their worst defensive performance of the season. Advertisement In fact it was only the third time that PSG conceded at least three goals in the first 43 minutes of a match since the start of the QSI ownership era in 2011. The other two times, they came back to avoid defeat, against Lyon in 2012 and Amiens in 2020. And as if to sum up a terrible day for the Champions League winners, Joao Neves was sent off late on after being spotted by VAR tugging on Marc Cucurella's hair. As for this season, in their previous 64 matches in 2024/25 they had conceded three in the whole of a meaningful match on just one occasion, in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Aston Villa (but went through 5-4 on aggregate), with the other being a 3-1 defeat to Nice in Ligue 1 after the French title had already been secured. Basically, the new PSG just don't implode in this manner and the absence of Willian Pacho was keenly felt, with Lucas Beraldo being pulled between New York and New Jersey during a horrible first half performance. For the first goal – and in another rarity — Nuno Mendes was completely done by Malo Gusto, leaving PSG exposed four-on-three. For the second, Vitinha decided to show Palmer inside onto his left foot, which the Chelsea man tends to enjoy doing from time to time, before Beraldo barely bothered to close him down, allowing a five-yard gap in which Palmer could pick his spot. Then for the third, Palmer could run through a yawning gap between midfield and defence, before a non-existent defensive line allowed him to slip in Pedro behind Beraldo with a basic pass. No one covered themselves in glory for Luis Enrique's side but, with defending this bad, they had no foundations on which to build a performance worth of how good they've been for the whole of 2025. Tim Spiers Sunday, August 17: Crystal Palace (home), Premier League, 2pm UK/9am ET Wednesday, August 13: Tottenham Hotspur, UEFA Super Cup (Udine, Italy), 8pm UK/3pm ET
