Bradley Cooper to Produce Television Show on “ISIS”
BY: Tamara Wong Azaiez/ Contributing Writer
Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper is set to create a television series on the Islamic State and its rise in the Middle East. Cooper has decided to pursue production after his debut as the producer of the 2015 film, American Sniper.
Interestingly, Cooper is making a show about the terrorist organization that came to prominence because of the Iraq War. In American Sniper, Cooper played the role of a US Navy SEAL in Iraq with the highest killing count of anyone in US military history, with 160 killings registered.
During the release of the film, reviews claimed it had an extremely controversial plot. Clint Eastwood’s historical interpretation of the Iraq War was critiqued as “overly violent” with many Arab Americans voicing their concern about the imagery of targeting Muslims.
The film was evaluated as extremely controversial and sparked many issues over the representation of war and the way Eastwood portrayed history up to the 2003 Iraq war. American Sniper was criticized as a war propoganda film, but brought about discussion over the depiction of the Middle East and how negative the portrayal was.
Cooper’s new series on ISIS will air on HBO, and will be produced by Joint Effort, Cooper’s production company with Tod Phillips. The series intends to educate the general public about the Daesh group, its motivations, while also help to clarify issues concerning the Arab world.
The show plans to dramatize the events of the he Pulitzer Prize-winning book, titled “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS”. The show will tracks the group’s unlikely roots from its origins in a remote Jordanian prison to their military base in Syria.
Perhaps this show will be an opportunity for Bradley Cooper to understand America’s role in the rise of ISIS, too, namely the invasion of Iraq.