Despite helming Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning turn in Crazy Heart, and then a bunch of great actors in the underperforming Out Of The Furnace, it wasn’t until his gangster flick Black Mass that director Scott Cooper experienced real opening-weekend success. The movie, starring Johnny Depp as a sentient advertisement for Vitamin D, was Cooper’s first movie to gross more than $50 million, and it seems like the director has decided just what made the film successful. Deadline reports Cooper’s next project will be the Secret Service agent thriller White Knight, confirming suspicions that he will only direct color-themed films from now on.
Cooper will re-write a first draft of the script by The Judge’s Bill Dubuque and direct the project, which Warner Bros. hopes to turn into a franchise in the James Bond/Jason Bourne mold, even after seeing how well that worked out for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It tells the story of a Secret Service agent who, after souring on government work, takes “a job protecting the family of an arms dealer, putting himself at the center of a global CIA manhunt.” Assuming all goes well with the film, Cooper can then move on to his next projects: reboots of Green Lantern, Pink Flamingos, Blue Velvet, and an original drama based on the popular breakfast cereal Lucky Charms, Purple Horseshoes And Dirty Souls.