Bradley Cooper has been a huge rising star in the past few years, becoming one of the best known faces in comedy at the moment after The Hangover found huge success at the box office back in 2009, taking more than 0m. at the international box office from a m. budget.

He also proved himself more than capable of leading a film of his own earlier this year with the brilliant Limitless, which gained success from the critics, especially regarding his performance, as well as impressively taking more than 0m. at the box office, making it something of a sleeper hit.

He and his fellow hungover co-stars repeated their successes this year and then some, breaking the rule of sequels not out-earning their originals, with The Hangover Part II taking more than 0m. across the globe. Naturally, rumours have been circulating that a third film would soon be on its way, and The National Ledger report, via MovieHole, that Cooper has confirmed that he and his co-stars will be returning once more for The Hangover Part III.

The first film found the friends waking up in a hotel room in Vegas, the second shifted gears and moved the location to Thailand, and it seems that the third – and potentially final – film will be bringing the franchise Stateside again, to be set in Los Angeles. Speaking to Graham Norton, Cooper said,

“I hope we’ll start shooting next September. I know (director) Todd Phillips is working on the script. We stuck to the formula in the second one but the third would need to close the trilogy. I think it’ll take place in L.A. and not adhere to the structure.”

If shooting does indeed commence at the start of autumn next year, it’s probably likely that we can look forward to Part III being one of the bigger comedy films of the summer in 2013. With writer-director Todd Phillips working on the script, having co-written the last film and directed both the first films, fans of the series can be sure that the third film is in safe hands. Clearly, with the second film out-performing the original at the box office, there’s still a huge market for their blend of comedy, especially since Part II passed the half a billion mark.

Naturally, to keep fans entertained, Phillips will probably need to mix things up a bit for what Cooper predicts will be the last film, and it sounds like that’s exactly what he’s planning on doing. It’s still early days yet, to it may well be a while before we start hearing about new casting additions, but it’s probably a safe bet that we can expect Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, and Justin Bartha all to reprise their roles, no doubt along with the somewhat ridiculous Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow.

Before then, we can look forward to seeing Cooper in some pretty awesome upcoming films, including Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond The Pines, David O. Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook, and Alex Proyas’ adaptation of Milton’s Paradise Lost, all of which should be immense.

The Hangover Part II has just just come out on DVD/Blu-Ray, and you can check out our exclusive clip that we put up earlier today right here.