How the life of UK comic John Bishop became Bradley Cooper’s latest directing effort ‘Is This Thing On?’

It was the autumn of 2022, and Bradley Cooper was on a short break between two shooting blocks of his film Maestro, and returning from Los Angeles to New York. Will Arnett – his friend for more than two decades – was flying in the same direction to meet up with his London-based writing partner Mark Chappell and continue work on their screenplay for a relationship-comedy film.

Taking the same flight together, Cooper asked Arnett what he was working on. It was then that Arnett shared the premise of Is This Thing On?, and its perhaps unlikely inspiration: how Liverpool-born pharmaceutical salesman John Bishop, feeling low during the dissolution of his marriage, had entered a Manchester bar hosting an open-mic comedy night, put his name down on the performer list to evade the entrance charge, and found himself in front of an audience improvising material about his own divorce. Bishop returned to the stage in subsequent weeks, using stand-up as personal therapy, and finally pivoting to a career in comedy. Along the way, stand-up also provided the key to mending his broken marriage.

“I just couldn’t stop thinking about that idea,” recalls Cooper, who saw how the role could provide a vital opportunity for Arnett. “I always thought Will is the funniest guy in the room, and he’s always been so charismatic. I’ve thought, over the years, that I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten the opportunity to show more of his skillset. I thought, ‘Wow, he’s going to crush this.’”

Cooper asked to read the screenplay, but Arnett and Chappell – who were meeting up to spend a week together fashioning a fresh draft for development financier Searchlight Pictures – had minimal expectation that he actually would. Cooper was amply busy with his own film, after all.

“We write the new draft, and it’s Friday, and we send it to Searchlight,” explains Chappell. “And Will is like, ‘This is awkward, but Bradley did say, “Send it to me,” so I’m going to send it.’” Three days later, Cooper offered script notes, presented his ideas, and asked if he could direct.

The origins of the film date back six years earlier, when UK producer Kris Thykier (Operation Mincemeat) attended the UK premiere of documentary I Am Bolt to support his producer friend Gabe Turner. Feeling a fish out of water at the after-party in a London nightclub, he retreated to a sofa and found himself sitting next to comedian John Bishop. Thykier asked Bishop how he first got into comedy. The stand-up explained the unlikely trajectory, as well as the marriage healing part, which occurred after he was invited by the comedy club owner to perform his first paid professional slot.

“And this is where, if it wasn’t true, I don’t think you could make it up in a movie,” says Thykier. “Unbeknown to him, his wife was going on a work do or hen night, and she was there. He hears her laugh in the crowd, and tries to finish as quickly as possible. Goes to see her to apologise [for using such personal material], and they’re just at the point of the decree nisi. And she goes, ‘Well, hang on, but the man I saw on stage was the man I married. Where did he go?’ And that was the start of them getting back together.”

Thykier immediately saw the potential for a film. He was in the middle of producing the second season of Sky TV show Riviera, which had a new cast member in the shape of Arnett, who as a writer had co-created TV series Wilde and Flaked.

“He just had an amazing presence,” says Thykier. “No offense to Riviera, I love Riviera, but I was like, ‘What are you doing in my show? You’re great.’ It was, like, [he’s a] brilliant actor. I thought he could convincingly be a stand-up, and he was also a writer and a creator.”

Thykier introduced Arnett to Bishop and the two men hit it off. Arnett then pulled in his writing partner Chappell, whom he had met when the actor starred in – and Chappell joined the writing team of – IFC sitcom The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret in 2011. The pair then co-created Flaked, and Chappell would go on to write big-screen comic murder mystery See How They Run (2022).

Arnett and Chappell spent time with Bishop, drawing out story elements and gaining insight into the world of stand-up – and all three share story credit on the film. “This was the beginning of the process for John to let go of the details of his story, and begin to embrace the spirit of his story,” explains Chappell.

Thykier optioned Bishop’s story via his own Archery Pictures, and set up a development deal for Arnett and Chappell to write the screenplay with Focus Features – later pivoting to Searchlight Pictures after Focus put the project into turnaround. Searchlight’s London-based executive vice president Katie Goodson-Thomas “championed it”, says Thykier.

Arnett and Chappell took the screenplay in different tonal directions throughout this extended period. “I think what happened was, there were… not opposing forces, but people wanted it to be more romcom-y,” explains Arnett. “Initially, Kris had said there weren’t enough romcoms in the world, which I didn’t disagree with, but I don’t think Mark and I ever were comfortable in that space.”

Cooper’s input helped take the story and the tone closer to the writers’ own natural instincts. “Bradley helped us elevate and tell this genuine, authentic story,” says Arnett. “Once Bradley came into that process, it was a relief for us. It legitimised us, in the sense that we could go and tell a story like this, and the powers that be would allow us because they had faith in Bradley. So we didn’t have to do the romcom version. They were going to let us do the version Bradley wanted to do. He ended up being the ace up our sleeve.”

“I think the key line from the film is, ‘I wasn’t unhappy with the marriage, I was unhappy in the marriage,’” adds Thykier. “And how it’s often about fixing yourself in order to fix the relationship with someone else – that was something Bradley wanted to delve into, and he moved the dial significantly.”

Universal story

Maestro launched at Venice in September 2023, and following the end of the SAG-AFTRA strikes in November, Cooper’s promotional duties stretched into 2024. He was then able to focus on Is Thing Thing On?, writing his own pass, taking notes from Arnett and Chappell, and working with the pair on further drafts. Cooper, Arnett and Chappell share screenplay credit.

All along, it had never been the intention to make a biopic of Bishop. “Not because he hasn’t got a big enough following,” explains Thykier, “but it felt that it was a universal story, rather than a specific story.”

Since Arnett would be playing the protagonist – named Alex Novak – it made sense to set the film in the US, initially in Boston, which has a thriving comedy scene. The film is “not about him being a good comic”, says Cooper. “It’s quite the opposite. It’s about him finding something that inspires him, and then how that can permeate into your intimate relationships in life.”

Arnett – best known for Arrested Development and BoJack Horseman – had all along been attracted to the project as a starring role for himself. “But there were moments where I thought there’s a chance that maybe the only way this will get made is if I don’t play the part,” he says. “It’s so hard to get a movie made.”

At no point did Cooper’s involvement ever challenge the casting of the lead role – not even at Searchlight, according to the director. “I happened to know David Greenbaum well, who at that time was still running Searchlight,” he explains (Greenbaum is now president of Disney Live Action Studios and 20th Century Studios). “We had done Nightmare Alley together. So I was able to call Dave and say, ‘Hey, you guys have got this project in development out there in the UK, I really like the idea of rewriting it and I’d like to direct it and Will [in the lead].’ And they were into that. There was no conversation [about casting Cooper in the lead role].”

The appeal of the Alex Novak character was clear for Arnett. “I moved to New York as a young man wanting to be a dramatic actor,” he explains. “Then I went in a different direction. I was fortunate to have some success and do some cool things, but this was always the area I thought I would get into. It was a muscle I hadn’t exercised in a long time.

“I played a lot of heightened characters,” continues Arnett. “I didn’t get typecast, it’s not like anybody did it to me. I accepted a lot of these things for any number of reasons. I wanted to do it. It seemed like fun. I wanted the money, whatever the fuck it was.”

Arnett may have spent most of his career in comedic roles, but had never performed stand-up, and Is This Thing On? would require just that. Moreover, it had always been a concern by Bishop, who is an executive producer on the film, that the stand-up scenes be convincing.

Arnett spent six weeks performing in comedy club guest spots, appearing as ‘Alex Novak’, to the confusion of those in the audience who recognised him. He also had to rehearse the development of Alex on stage from first-timer to more-seasoned performer. “We had to track his progression, not just as a stand-up, but as a person throughout the film, and see his comfort level,” explains Arnett. “There were so many different beats to hit.”

Cooper’s involvement did require Searchlight to embrace his vision that the film be set and shot in New York City, utilising real venues familiar to the director including the Comedy Cellar at Greenwich Village’s Olive Tree Cafe. “That was one of the things that was clear to me, what I thought the city character had to be, and how New York could infuse that setting,” says Cooper

The director operated the camera himself for much of the film – working alongside regular director of photography Matthew Libatique – and shooting many of the scenes in extreme close proximity to the actors. “Not only did the material warrant it, but I think the excitement of making a film in that fashion with that sort of drive and energy was important to him,” says Thykier, who produces alongside Cooper, Arnett and Cooper’s Lea Pictures producing partner Weston Middleton.

Shooting in Manhattan has a budgetary implication. “I would say that the choice to go to New York definitely made it a tougher shoot,” explains Thykier. “You’re well aware of the Searchlight model. They were not going to double the budget in order to do it in New York. It was within the confines.

“I believe that all great movies need not quite enough money. I talk about movies being a commercial art form where commerce and art meet, and often some of the best creative decisions are forced out of commercial pressure.”

After the lengthy script development process stretching from 2018 to 2024, the project suddenly picked up pace in 2025 – and Is This Thing On? premiered at New York Film Festival in October 2025, ahead of a December 19 US release.

“We shot for 33 days, wrapped in May [2025], and then I delivered the movie on October 2,” says Cooper. “I’ve never done a movie in one calendar year, which is kind of crazy. I thought it was supposed to come out [in 2026], but at a certain point in shooting, [Searchlight] said, ‘Would you be able to have it come out this year? We’d have to cut three weeks off your post schedule.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting task.’”

Pressure drop

One of Cooper’s further impacts on the screenplay was to dig deeper into the character of Tess, Alex’s wife, played by Laura Dern. “Laura, we’ve been friends for 15 years,” explains Cooper. “That was something where I talked to her about it before I even wrote Tess, and pitching her who I thought Tess could be. She showed interest, and that was enough for me to try to create that character for her.”

The cast rounded out with Andra Day (The United States Vs Billie Holiday) and Cooper as Alex and Tess’s best friends, plus Ciaran Hinds and Christine Ebersole as Alex’s parents, alongside Sean Hayes, Amy Sedaris, and numerous stand-ups playing themselves as Comedy Cellar performers.

Throughout the film, Alex and Tess’s young sons, aged 10 and 11, are rehearsing for a school concert, and Dern suggested a song they might perform in the film’s climactic scene. It is a mild spoiler to reveal it is ‘Under Pressure’ by Queen and David Bowie – providing a euphoric finale that suggests Is This Thing On? is not afraid, when needed, to please its audience. (“Insanity laughs under pressure we’re breaking… Why can’t we give love that one more chance?”)

“Laura showed me a version with Ben Harper and Eddie Vedder covering the song, and she was like, ‘Aren’t these lyrics so perfect?’” says Cooper. “The minute I listened to it, it all crystallised.”

“It is not an inexpensive needle drop,” adds Thykier with a smile. “However, it works brilliantly. And Bradley was determined to have it – and again, credit Searchlight, they absolutely backed that.”

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