Scott Cooper's unrealized projects

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As claimed by Robert Duvall in April 2010, Cooper had been in talks with him and Brad Pitt for a film about the infamous Hatfield/McCoy family feud. Eric Roth wrote the script, and Cooper collaborator T-Bone Burnett was signed to compose the soundtrack.^[1]

In August 2010, it had been reported that Brad Pitt was offered a role in Cooper's Brownsville Girl, which was adapted by Jay Cocks from the song by Bob Dylan.^[2]

In October 2010, it was reported that Warner Bros. had considered Cooper among several potential candidates to direct the then-titled Tales from the Gangster Squad.^[3] The film would later be released in 2013 under the title Gangster Squad, and directed by Ruben Fleischer.

In November 2010, Cooper was reported to have signed on to direct an American remake of the Argentinian crime thriller Carancho as his next film, from a script by Aaron Stockard.^[4]

In December 2010, it was reported that author Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana would be writing the Comanche drama the Empire of the Summer Moon for Cooper to direct. Adapted from the S. C. Gwynne book of the same title, the film was due to be produced by Scott Free Productions.^[5] In January 2024, it was reported that Taylor Sheridan would be writing & directing Empire of the Summer Moon film for Warner Bros. Pictures, instead of Cooper, McMurtry, and Ossana.^[6]

On October 11, 2011, it was reported that Cooper would be directing a film of the Claire Messud novel The Emperor's Children, which had initially been set up as a directing vehicle for filmmaker Noah Baumbach the year prior. Working from Baumbach's adaptation, the film was predicted to begin production in the spring of 2012.^[7]

On October 21, 2011, Deadline Hollywood announced that Cooper had a made deal to direct and possibly adapt The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, based on the nonfiction book about Christian Gerhartsreiter. Donald De Line was going to produce through De Line Pictures.^[8]

In August 2012, Kristen Stewart was in talks to star in Cooper's planned adaptation of the 1951 William Styron novel Lie Down in Darkness.^[9] Cooper wrote the adapted script after completing Crazy Heart and had previously considered Jennifer Lawrence and Colin Firth for parts in the film.^[10] "When you're casting a family, all the elements have to come together perfectly and delicately," Cooper said of the project in 2013. "I'm in the process of talking to a number of actors and actresses," he added, denying Stewart's involvement as definite.^[11]

In February 2013, Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the then-to-be-published novel by Michael Armour, The Road Home, a Depression-era drama about a small town murder. Cooper signed on to write the script, direct, and co-produce with Jennifer Davisson Killoran and Leonardo DiCaprio, who was to star in the film.^[12] In May, the title was confirmed by Deadline to be Creek.^[13]

Cooper signed up in May 2013 to rewrite and direct 36th Precinct, a remake of the French film from 2004. Cooper's update was reportedly set in the NYPD's anti-terrorism unit, as opposed to the original's Banditry Repression Brigade in France.^[13][11]

On August 23, 2013, Cooper replaced Ben Affleck as director of Stephen King's The Stand.^[14] In an interview with MTV held on November 20, Cooper teased the notion of Christian Bale taking on a role in the eventual feature.^[15] Later that day, Cooper exited the film, allegedly due to creative differences between him and the studio over the project's vision.^[16] Reflecting on his departure from the adaptation in 2014, Cooper said, "Yeah, I have moved on. It was a great process of connecting with Mr. King. It's a great piece, but it's a tough story to crack in one telling [...] if you're going to take something on like that, you want to make sure you get it right."^[17] In June 2025, the project was revived with Doug Liman attached to direct instead of Cooper.^[18]

In 2014, Cooper was announced as the director of a then-untitled feature film about the members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighter crew who perished in the Yarnell Hill wildfire.^[19] Cooper eventually departed from the project, and its script was made into a film in 2017 by Joseph Kosinski.

In September 2015, TheWrap reported that Cooper was in talks to direct the film American Wolf, based on source material from Nate Blakeslee about the aftermath of a hunter who accidentally kills an endangered wolf in Yellowstone National Park.^[20]

In November 2015, Cooper was in talks to rewrite and direct the international thriller White Knight for Warner Bros., which was being set up as a potential franchise in the vein of Jason Bourne and James Bond. Working from a script penned by Bill Dubuque, the story would have followed a disgraced Secret Service agent who takes up the job of protecting an arms dealer's family, putting him in the midst of a CIA manhunt.^[21]

In 2017, Cooper was announced to direct his scripted adaptation of Hellhound on His Trail, dealing with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the subsequent manhunt of his killer. Black Label Media stepped up to produce and finance the adaptation, with a spring 2018 target for the start of production.^[22]

In 2019, John Lesher was reported to be producing a reteaming of Cooper and Christian Bale for a film called Valhalla, to be developed at Netflix.^[23] The film's plot was not revealed; however, in 2022, Cooper confirmed that he and Bale would eventually make the film.^[24]

Cooper also developed an adaptation of Jess Walter's noir novel Over Tumbled Graves for producer John Lesher and Cross Creek Pictures.^[23]

In February 2020, Cooper had been set to direct Margaret Qualley in the psychological horror film A Head Full of Ghosts, based on the horror novel by Paul Tremblay.^[25] Cooper has stated that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic intervened in the project's development, but that he was pleased with how his script turned out.^[a] On February 6, 2026, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala took over the project as directors from Cooper. David Harbour, Rebecca Hall, & Esmé Creed-Miles joined the cast after Qualley dropped out, after Team Downey moved the project to Lionsgate Films. ^[27]

In October 2020, Cooper was reported to make his television debut with Angels & Demons. Set up as a limited series at Black Bear Television with Cooper writing and directing each episode, the series was to have been based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning article by Thomas French about the tragic murders of three women in Tampa Bay.^[28]

Speaking in 2022 about his collaboration and working relationship with Christian Bale, Cooper teased several potential projects him and the actor were considering pursuing, including a "reimagining" he had long wanted to make of Laurent Cantet's 2001 French film Time Out. Cooper then confirmed on an episode of WTF with Marc Maron that Bale was intent on starring.^[24] However, in February 2026, it was revealed that Adam Sandler would take over for Bale, with filming set for April 1st, 2026, in Vancouver. Netflix will distribute the film.^[29]

In 2025, The Hollywood Reporter announced that after finishing Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Cooper closed a deal to write, direct and produce an untitled crime drama for Amazon MGM Studios' United Artists as his next film. Though plot details remain vague, the project had been described as "a contemporary crime two-hander."^[30]