Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence film goes straight to VOD

quote:

---

With Jenkintown heartthrob Bradley Cooper riding high these last few months on the success of American Sniper, it’s hard to imagine any of his films doing poorly. But then along came Serena, the Jennifer Lawrence co-starring flick that’s officially skipped theaters and gone straight to Video On Demand.

---

quote:

---

Director Susanne Bier helmed the reportedly embattled film, which tells the story of a Depression-era timber industry fat cat (Cooper) and the strained relationship he shares with his strong-willed wife, Serena (Lawrence). The film began in 2012 as an adaptation of Ron Rash’s 2008 novel of the same name. At the time, Cooper and Lawrence were riding similarly high on the success of Silver Linings Playbook — a film that director Bier felt immense pressure to match. Consequently, she reportedly spent 18 months cutting Cooper's and Lawrence’s work together, only to have it bomb fantastically at the 2014 London Film Festival. As a result, Bier couldn’t find a buyer in the U.S. to distribute Serena.

---

quote:

---

Eventually, Magnolia Pictures picked the film up, and Serena quietly made its way to VOD services everywhere on Feb. 26. Which, of course, is interesting, considering that Cooper and Lawrence have starred together in films multiple times, and many of those movies are considered wildly successful. To push a film starring the pair to VOD with little to no fanfare is, in a word, unusual, and it's hard to imagine the same happening for, say, American Hustle.

---