The Big Picture

• Making 5 films together, Cooper and Lawrence's Serena underperformed due to delays, poor editing, and disengagement from the stars post-production.
• Serena's troubles began with director and casting changes, while Lawrence and Cooper's rise to fame overshadowed the film's premiere.
• Despite Serena's failure, director Bier recovered and went on to direct successful projects, earning prestigious awards in the industry.

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence have already starred in four films together, and when they do, is usually an Oscar-worthy pairing. The two have collaborated on Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and Joy with all three earning at the very least a nomination for one or both and two wins for Lawrence. So one of the biggest mysteries that still echoes around Hollywood corners is what happened with their romantic period piece entitled Serena?

Serena is an interesting case study in that it wasn't a production that was bogged down during the shoot. By all accounts, the 2012 filming of the Depression era piece in the Czech Republic – which served as the rural Appalachian North Carolina in the movie – went very smoothly. Obviously, the two stars have a terrific relationship and proven chemistry. It's what happened before and after the shoot that sent the wheels flying off of what should have been, at the very least, a serviceable film with two big name actors.

'Serena' Had Pre-Production Problems

Everything started to go sideways when the film's original director, Darren Aronofsky decided to pull out of the project and was replaced by Susanne Bier, the veteran Danish filmmaker. Bier had an impressive history behind the camera with films like Brothers (2004), After the Wedding (2006), and In a Better World in 2010. In fact, In a Better World won the Academy Award in 2011 for Best Foreign Language Film. So, her track record was solid, and Bier had established directorial bona fides. But then another curveball came into play when Angelina Jolie decided to leave the project with Aronofsky and the titular role of Serena had to be recast.

You could do a lot worse than having to resort to Jennifer Lawrence as your replacement, but at the time, she was still on the rise and was known primarily for her work on action adventure films like X-Men:First Class and The Hunger Games (although she was truly impressive in Winter's Bone in 2010). Once aboard as the lead, Lawrence then suggested Cooper for the role of George Pemberton, because the two had gotten along so well during their shooting of Silver Linings Playbook, which had yet to be released. Nevertheless, these pre-production snafus didn't prove to be too much to overcome, and the project moved forward, but it did get the project off on the wrong foot.

'Serena' Had a Relatively Smooth Shoot

There were still very high hopes for the film when they began shooting in 2012. The story was based on the novel of the same name by Ron Rash, who wrote a story about the ambitious wife of a North Carolina timber baron that also had a Shakespearean Lady MacBeth quality to it. It was an intrepid story, and the two leads had proven chemistry. The film was also given a $25-$30 million dollar budget to work with, which is a tidy sum for a character-driven romantic period piece. So, when the shooting in the Czech Republic wrapped in late 2012, there was no reason to think that they had no less than a decent film that might even turn a little bit of a profit. Unfortunately, the problems started after Bier declared the final "cut" on set and the film arrived in the editing room.

After Filming, 'Serena' Faced Post-Production Problems and Delays

After the film had wrapped and everyone had gone home, it was time for Bier to put together the film that she envisioned in the editing room. This is the point at which Serena started to falter a bit, as Bier had all kinds of problems cutting together the film in the way that would satiate her. Bier had a reputation in film circles as a perfectionist, and seemed to be paralyzed when it came to arriving at a satisfactory final cut. She reportedly was so indecisive, that the film's release was delayed by at least six months.

Normally that wouldn't have been such a big deal, but in this particular case, it was while she was still deciding on a final cut, that the blockbuster, Silver Linings Playbook had already debuted and made massive stars out of both Lawrence and Cooper. They were shooting stars that had rocketed far away from the galaxy that Bier and Serena were still mired in, surrounded by film on the cutting room floor. By the time the film was finally released, it was a limited showing, and was almost a footnote in fast-paced and ever-changing world of Hollywood. It appeared that the world had moved on and forgotten all about a film that ultimately fell under the scrutiny of critics who weren't thrilled with the performances of the leads, but more unimpressed with Bier and the unsteady and shaky editing that eventually made its way onto the big screen.

'Serena' Was a Victim of Bad Box Office Timing

When the smoke cleared, and Serena was finally released on October 13, 2014, at the London Film Festival, there was an almost eerie feeling at the premiere that both Lawrence and Cooper were contractually obligated to attend. There was a sense that they had already moved on. Like they were coming back to their small hometown after making big in the city. Audiences could feel the lack of momentum too, when it earned less than $1 million in theaters.

So while Bier's "paralysis by analysis" was probably the biggest contributing factor to the lost project, it was also the victim of some bad timing and the two actors not bringing their "A" games to the roles and movie promotion. To her credit, however, Bier pushed the experience aside and has gone on to direct some very successful projects including the Sandra Bullock Netflix smash, Bird box, the HBO hit limited series The Undoing, and The First Lady, which aired on Showtime. In fact, she is the first female director to receive a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a European Film Award. So we're glad that even though Serena bombed, everyone involved appears to have landed squarely on their feet.

Serena is currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

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