Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper unveil new song 'The Shallows' in first trailer of 'A Star Is Born'
Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga share the stage to perform 'The Shallow' in the trailer of their upcoming remake of the 1937 David O Selznick Hollywood classic 'A Star Is Born'.
The new preview teases a few original songs composed for the musically-themed romance, including a roaring rock-tinged ballad penned by Mark Ronson that shows up near the end, Entertainment Weekly reports.
The trailer opens with a spotlight on Cooper, who plays the role of fading country star Jackson Maine. Performing at what looks like an outdoor music festival, Cooper sings “Baby, it’s time to let the old ways die / It takes a lot to change, it takes a lot to try,” in a surprisingly good voice.
He then discovers Gaga’s character, a struggling artist named Ally who’s short on confidence. “I don’t sing my own songs,” she tells Cooper. “I just don’t feel comfortable. Almost every single person has told me that they liked the way I sounded, but they didn’t like the way I looked.” A clearly smitten Cooper replies, “I think you’re beautiful.”
A montage then takes us through the highs and lows of Ally's relationship with Jackson as her career takes off. The highlight of the trailer, of course, comes towards the very end when Jackson goads a reluctant Ally on to the stage to perform in front of a packed arena. Cue Lady Gaga's signature powerhouse vocals and the magnificent crescendo of Ronson's 'The Shallow'. Watch the trailer below.
The film also marks the directorial debut of Bradley Cooper. Clint Eastwood, who directed Cooper in 'American Sniper', initially had expressed plans of helming the remake of the perennial Hollywood story back in 2011 and even had Beyonce lined up to play the movie's female lead. But when the plans didn't pan out, Cooper signed on to call the shots instead.
As Variety notes, it’s the third remake of 1937’s 'A Star Is Born,' for which Janet Gaynor won the Academy Award for her role as an aspiring actress dealing with a fading star played by Fredric March. It was rebooted in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason, and in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.
The film’s OST comes together with the help of several music industry A-listers. While Mark Ronson (who executive-produced Gaga’s 2016 LP 'Joanne') helped write 'The Shallow' with the film’s leads, Lukas Nelson, Dave Cobb, and Jason Isbell each had a hand in crafting other tunes for the project alongside Gaga and Cooper. At Gaga’s insistence, the material was recorded live on set as the movie was filmed — a process that previously secured an Oscar nod for 'A Star Is Born' sound engineer Steve Morrow for 2017's La La Land.
“It all came down to this broken love story, and there’s no better way to express that than through singing because there’s nowhere to hide when you’re singing. Your whole body is electrified,” director Bradley Cooper said talking about the film in an interview with EW last December.
“That was the initial igniter of the passion for me. Then, it was about going back and watching the other versions, and each one had many merits, and I wanted to make sure that this movie paid homage to and was aware of the [others], and honored [them] as another incarnation, while at the same time being a very personal movie that lives on its own.”
A Star Is Born hits theaters on October 5th.