Actor Bradley Cooper is developing a TV miniseries based on a book about the rise of IS militants, a show the author hopes will help Americans understand how the group came about. Joby Warrick’s 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS” tracks the group’s unlikely roots and transformation into the extremist ensemble, from its origins in a remote Jordanian prison to its advances in Syria.
The non-fiction book also follows the small band of American and international agents tasked with shutting down the group.
Cooper, best known for his starring roles in movies like “American Sniper” and “The Hangover,” is developing the miniseries for HBO through his production company, the cable channel said. It will dramatize events in the book. Warrick, a national security reporter at the Washington Post, said the series would aim to explain, educate and help clarify issues about ISIS and its motivations, a subject he had discussed with Cooper which was of immediate and utmost importance to American citizens.
Warrick said Cooper, 41, and partner producer Todd Phillips, 45, had visited him at his home outside of Washington, DC earlier this year to pitch their idea. No casting or estimated air date has been announced for the “Black Flags” project.
Cooper and Phillips formed their production company, Joint Effort, in 2014. Their project “War Dogs,” a comedy about arms dealers in Afghanistan in which Cooper also stars, will be released Aug. 19.
