Rumor: Bradley Cooper Offered Role of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon in Biopic ‘Pandemonium’
Posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2017 by
Ben Pearson
Crazy Stupid Love and
Focus directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requaare
currently developingPandemonium, a biopic of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, and a new rumor says that
The Hangover and
American Sniper star Bradley Cooper has been offered the role of the boisterous and media-savvy personality. Sounds like pretty great casting to us, but if Cooper’s not interested, let’s fan-cast this baby ourselves and come up with some alternate choices for who might make a good cinematic version of the wrestling impresario.
Word about Cooper’s offer comes from
PWInsider.com, a site dedicated to professional wrestling. We’re not certain of the site’s bona fides when it comes to breaking movie news, so it’s best to treat this as a rumor until we hear confirmation elsewhere; that being said, the site was well-known as a reliable source for breaking accurate wrestling news the last time we checked (which was admittedly a few years ago), so it’s not hard to imagine they have a source close to this production.
One more thing worth mentioning before we dig into the casting talk:
Pandemonium was written by Craig A. Williams (
Underdog) and is being made with the involvement of WWE Studios, meaning the final product will almost certainly be a more watered-down version of events than what actually happened since McMahon and his family will have a say in what makes it to the final cut. Bummer.
If you don’t know much about McMahon, he’s a brash, larger-than-life persona who is also a business visionary responsible for turning what was previously only a regional sport into a worldwide mega-hit enterprise. (He’s also responsible for the short-lived XFL football league, which was covered in great detail in
a recent ESPN 30 for 30 film.) He currently operates as the majority owner of the WWE, but he’s also essentially played a heightened version of himself on television for years, going as far as getting in the ring to wrestle and incorporating himself into the sorts of long-running narratives that wrestling fans love.
Cooper is inspired casting. He sort of has the look of a younger McMahon with the slick hair and the flashy clothes, but there’s an intelligence to him that would make you believe there’s something deeper going on than just a hyped up public persona. But let’s pretend he’s not interested and he passes on the part. Who else could play this guy in
Pandemonium?