Bradley Cooper Could Heat Up The Kitchen In Weinstein's Chef

This is what happens when you’re a red-hot Oscar nominee: All of a sudden, your name gets attached to every project under the sun, raising hope for your fans but creating a scheduling nightmare for your handlers.

Bradley Cooper, who’s still enjoying his recent Best Actor nomination for his insightful work in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, currently is in negotiations to star in Chef, Variety reports. That is the working title for a culinary comedy that will be backed by The Weinstein Company. As a result, Cooper’s name is being associated with possible Chef co-star Omar Sy, who co-starred in the French crowd pleaser The Intouchables (which also was picked up and distributed in the U.S. by Weinstein).

Chef also would reunite Cooper with Derek Cianfrance, his The Place Beyond the Pines director who has been hired to helm this comedy. Cooper would play a disgraced chef who must rebound after losing his top-rated Parisian restaurant. He attempts to open the most-popular eatery in London, probably with disastrous results. The actor reportedly told the French radio station RTL:

"We've been talking about this project. I want to do it. It's a beautiful story. And I love cooking. … [But] I'm going to make another film in March and after that I think I'm going to take a break and stay in Paris for Roland Garros (the tennis tournament set in late May)."

So it’s unclear when Chef would film, if Cooper agrees to do it at all. As we reported, he’s currently circling The Man from Primrose Lane, possibly talking about playing Lance Armstrong, possibly romancing Emma Stone in Cameron Crowe’s next movie, and has a final Hangover movie to promote. You think you’re busy? I think Chef sounds like fun, and Cooper likely would be great, but something on his schedule is going to have to give. We’ll see what happens.