Producers behind Bradley Cooper's acclaimed drama American Sniper decided not to show Chris Kyle's death in the film following a phone call from his widow.

Cooper plays crackshot Navy SEAL Kyle in the Oscar-nominated movie, and the production was thrown into turmoil after the film's real life subject died at a gun range in Texas in 2013.

Screenwriter Jason Hall has now revealed Kyle's widow Taya called the team five days after her husband's death and asked for it not to be featured.

He tells the New York Daily News, "Five days after Chris (died), (Taya) called and said, 'This is going to be how my children remember their father, so I want you to get (it) right'... We went around and around (trying to find an appropriate ending)... In the end, I think we felt that this was a film about Chris' life and not about his death... I didn't want it to be the thing that was hanging over their (the children's) heads for the very rest of their lives as the film that showed their father getting shot."

The film ends with Cooper's character arriving at the shooting range and then cuts to his funeral.

Former marine Eddie Ray Routh, 27, is currently on trial in Texas accused of killing Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield in February, 2013. He has pleaded not guilty to murder.