Bradley Cooper, the Oscar-nominated actor-turned-director behind A Star Is Born and Maestro, has directed a new movie that takes its inspiration from an unlikely source: namely, the award-winning British stand-up comedian John Bishop.

For UK readers, it may be surprising to learn that the director would even know who the Scouse comedian is. Is This Thing On?, which just played at the BFI London Film Festival, is loosely inspired by Bishop’s life story, specifically how becoming a comedian helped save his marriage.

In 2000, before he became a household name, the Merseyside comic was in a difficult place. He was struggling with his day job as a sales rep and growing apart from his wife of eight years, Melanie. The pair split and were co-parenting their children, but the prospect of her finding another partner and that person raising their kids became too much for him, and he began to experience a midlife crisis.

Frustrated with his life, Bishop decided to try his hand at comedy. It was by pure chance that Melanie attended one of the comedy shows where he was performing.

Bishop was not named on the line-up, so it came as a surprise when he stepped out on stage and performed a set about how much he missed her, so much that he fantasised about keeping her head in the fridge. Rather than angering his wife, she found Bishop’s joke both compelling and romantic, and it ultimately helped them reconnect.

Cooper’s movie takes this experience and transports it to the New York comedy scene, with Will Arnett playing Alex Novak, a depressed father who decides to try his hand at comedy after becoming estranged from his wife, Tess (Laura Dern).

The romantic comedy unfolds in much the same way as Bishop’s life did, with Tess stumbling upon Alex’s set by accident, and with his new career path altering their relationship.

So how did Cooper come to learn of Bishop’s story? In actual fact, prior to making the film, Cooper hadn’t even met Bishop; instead, he learned about his story through Arnett.

The actor met Bishop at a dinner ten years earlier and struck up a conversation, during which the comedian shared with the actor how his career had unfolded and what it meant to his family.

Chloe Radcliffe, one of the film’s stars, shared: “Will and John sat next to each other at a dinner 10 years ago, and Will heard his story and was like, ‘That rules, I want to do that someday.'”

Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival, Cooper told PA that his project owes a lot to British comedy, despite being set in New York City, sharing: “It’s inspired by John Bishop’s story, so that was the nugget of it and then he [Will] was working on that with John, and he was just telling me about it because we were friends.

“And I just sort of saw this image of him, and I got excited about ‘What if we set it in New York, and what if it’s a movie about a relationship?’”

He added: “I think directly, I think all of us have grown up on British humour and love it, so yes, it’s indelible.”

Is This Thing On? has already earned rave reviews ahead of its release, with the film being described as a feel-good comedy and a delight.

The Guardian‘s Adrian Horton wrote that the film is “a subtle, self-deprecating, ultimately endearing rom-com between two people who were married for 20 years” but the strength of the movie lies in its central cast and what they bring to their characters.

The critic wrote: “Dern is positively sprightly as Tess reconnects with an older version of herself, Arnett lumbering with the pain of new revelations, both jittery on the edge of something new in what becomes an absorbing portrait of a relationship in flux. Is This Thing On? starts with a punchline – sad divorced dad stumbles into a bar as a cry for help – and smartly works backward; like a great routine, beneath the jokes lurks something tender, grounded and real.”

Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman is the one to describe the movie as “feel-good”, adding: “It’s an observant, bittersweet, and highly watchable movie, yet there’s an inner softness to it, a slightly pandering quality.”

While The Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney wrote that the film is “tenderly observed”, celebrating it for being a surprise: “It’s an unassuming comic drama that sneaks up on you, its emotional honesty fueled by gorgeous performances of unimpeachable naturalness from Will Arnett and Laura Dern.”

Is This Thing On? will be released in US cinemas on 19 December, and in UK cinemas on 30 January, 2026.