Bradley Cooper develops ‘Black Flags’ series for HBO

August 7, 2016

Actor Bradley Cooper is working on a television show based on the book “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS”, which talks about the origin and growth of the Islamic State militants.

The book earned Joby Warrick the Pulitzer Prize this year. The author hopes both the novel and the TV show give North American people a little insight on the terrorist group and its motivations.

The book talks about ISIS’ beginnings in a prison in Jordan and how it transformed into a well-known global terrorist organization based in Syria. It also follows the story of the international agents that are trying to put a stop to the Taliban threat.

Cooper, who acted in ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ is producing the series through his production company Joint Effort. He founded the company back in 2014 alongside Todd Phillips, for the cable channel HBO. Big names like ‘Wolverine’ writer Gregg Hurwitz and ‘Game Of Thrones’ director Tim Van Patten are joining Cooper and Phillips in the project.

‘Black Flags’ talks about the birth and rise of ISIS in the Middle East

Warrick said Cooper and Phillips visited him earlier this year to discuss their ideas for the project. The “Black Flags” author said he would not be writing the script but that the film team made him “feel like a partner” for asking him about his thoughts.

“I CAME AWAY FEELING VERY IMPRESSED WITH THE INTEGRITY OF THEIR IDEAS,” the author told Reuters. “WHEN YOU WRITE A BOOK OF NON-FICTION ON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT, YOU’RE FLATTERED THAT THERE IS FILM INTERESTED, BUT YOU’RE ALSO A LITTLE WORRIED.”

Warrick is a national security reporter at The Washington Post, a job he has been doing 1996. That year, he won his first Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for “The News & Observer” with his colleagues Melanie Sill and Pat Stith. On April 8 this year, he won his second Pulitzer Prize with ‘Black Flags’.

The Pulitzer-winner said the series would search to explain and educate about the motivations of the Islamic State, something that he and Cooper had agreed was of major importance for the North American American people.