JoelCoen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's impossible to top an icon like John Wayne, but the Coen Bros' True Grit is shaping up to have a better supporting cast than the original did. (Hey, Wayne supposedly didn't like Kim Darby either.) Variety has just announced that Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are in talks to join Jeff Bridges in the Coens' remake.

Bridges will play Rooster Cogburn, while Damon is in talks to play La Boeuf, the Texas Ranger who pairs up with Cogburn and Mattie. I'll probably anger the Glen Campbell fans out there, but I think this is a vast improvement over the original casting. I can actually buy Damon as a Texas Ranger.

Brolin will be taking a walk on the nasty side, as he'll be playing Tom Chaney, the man who gunned Mattie's father down for the gold he had in his saddlebag. While Chaney wasn't the most pleasant fellow in the original, there's no doubt that Brolin will increase the menace and nastiness. I think we can all agree Brolin has done no wrong since his No Country For Old Men comeback, and this is the kind of role that'll be delicious to watch him tear into. The film is set to go into production in March 2010, and the Coens won't waste any time in the editing room as it's slated to be released in late 2010.

This is the dark comedy that Joel and Ethan Coen have been working towards. A Serious Man is the culmination of their lives, reminiscent both of their own suburban childhoods in the '60s, and of their cinematic successes over the last twenty-five years. It grabs the magic of local flavor and charm we saw in Fargo with a cast widely filled with unknown names (that pack as much of a cinematic punch as any star-studded roster you can think of), to the rapidly escalating drama of Burn After Reading. A Serious Man is cohesive and slick from stem to stern. It's serious about the craft of storytelling, both in form and function, with a dedication to characterization, pitch-perfect performances, and a cinematic backdrop that is both severely nostalgic and completely immersive.

In many ways, A Serious Man is a modern-day Candide. But rather than a hapless hero who is continually undaunted by the neverending drama that plagues him, the Coens' hero isn't a ray of sunshine. Larry Gopnik (perfectly embodied by renowned stage actor Michael Stuhlbarg) is a man utterly at a loss to explain his life's severe turn for the worse; he is a man desperate for answers. The classic Candide optimism shines down in the form of the rabbis he consults with as he tries to make sense of things. But rather than sage advice, they deliver wholly inadequate responses to life's trauma that don't speak at all to the nature of Larry's life.

Rooster Cogburn will abide, if the Coen Bros, Jeff Bridges, and Paramount come to terms. Variety reports that Bridges and the Coens are in talks for Bridges to play the iconic Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Bros' remake of True Grit. It would be their first collaboration since The Big Lebowski.

When the True Grit remake was first announced, the Coens were said to be making a more faithful adaptation of Charles Portis' novel, and it seemed like it might head into darker No Country for Old Men territory. But the book features a lot of deadpan humor mixed with Old Testament lessons, and if they stick to it for the script, it'll play to their talents extremely well.

At first glance, Bridges seems a pretty offbeat choice for Rooster Cogburn. But having just rewatched the John Wayne original last week, I think it might just be casting heaven. Rooster is a killer, but he's also a fall down drunk, full of sarcastic quips, and surprisingly tender-hearted. He's far from the typical stoic John Wayne character, and it was a bigger departure for Wayne than I had remembered. Bridges would be a perfect choice for blending the rugged charm, the humor, and the "true grit" of Rooster, and he's talented enough to not just play it as an imitation, but make it iconic on its own. If this comes together, it's one remake that could actually equal or outdo the original.

In 2007, a film called Chacun son cinema was created for the 60th anniversary of Cannes (briefly mentioned here). Like a Paris je t'aime for the cinematically minded, the film collected 33 shorts from directors across the world capturing their feelings about cinema. The collection was any movie-lovers dream -- David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, Jane Campion, Atom Egoyan, Elia Suleiman, Wong Kar Wai, Lars Von Trier, and even the Coen brothers.

After Cannes, it screened at TIFF and other film festivals across the world, and got two region 2 DVD releases. But not only has there been no Region 1 disc for the North Americans eager to see the film, the Coens' World Cinema also got shafted -- not appearing on the StudioCanal DVD and not listed on the Pyramide DVD -- even though their short was a part of screenings.

But now the short, in its entirety, has popped up online and it's awesome. The clip stars Josh Brolin (during the days of No Country for Old Men), Grant Heslov (who just helmed Men Who Stare at Goats), and Brooke Smith (Grey's Anatomy). A cowboy of sorts heads to a movie theater to catch a flick, confused about the two art films available to him. Heslov's ticket guy answers his questions, which includes the gem: "Is there livestock in any of 'em?"

Saying any more than that would ruin the magic, so check it out after the jump. And below that, you can check of Lynch's goosebump-inducing Absurda.

I never skip a Coen brothers movie, even the ones that hardly anyone mentions anymore, like The Man Who Wasn't There. Even when the movies don't quite work, they all have wonderful moments I'd hate to miss. I prefer the comedies -- don't shoot me when I say I liked Burn After Reading better than No Country for Old Men -- so I'm looking forward to their next movie, the dark comedy A Serious Man, which will open in limited release starting October 2.

The first trailer for A Serious Man has just been posted to the Apple site, and if you didn't know it was a Coen brothers movie, the visuals would give it away almost immediately. You also realize quickly that this is a non-star movie -- only a few character actors may seem familiar. The cast includes Richard Kind, Adam Arkin and Fyvush Finkel.

Michael Stuhlbarg plays Larry Gopnik, whose life appears to be crumbling around him in ways that might be heartbreaking in another movie. In the hands of Joel and Ethan Coen, however, it looks like A Serious Man could be as darkly and weirdly funny as Barton Fink. The trailer itself isn't as laugh-out-loud as the one for Burn After Reading -- every time I saw Brad Pitt in the gym I started giggling -- but it's hardly short on humor. Check it out after the jump and see whether you agree.

Fill your hands you ... well, you know the line. You probably know this movie line by line, and your heart still leaps to see Rooster Cogburn flip that Winchester. So the news that True Grit is getting remade by Joel and Ethan Coen will either fill you with rage, excitement, or put you squarely into Swiss territory.

According to Variety, the Coen Bros aren't aiming for a traditional remake -- they want to return to the original Charles Portis novel, and make a more faithful adaptation. Their version will be told from Mattie's point of view, as the original novel is, and keep Cogburn as a side player. The Coens will undoubtedly amp up the Biblical tone and include the darker elements ... like what really happens to her after the snakebite.

Plans to remake True Grit have apparently been in the works for some time -- it originally begun at DreamWorks, but was left behind when Steven Spielberg and his shingle split with Paramount. Undaunted by the task, the Coens are tackling it before their adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

So, what else can you say? It's the Coen Bros, who will undoubtedly tackle a period Western as ably as they did a modern, revisionist one. On the other hand, it's John Wayne. It's the movie he won his only Oscar for. Do you dare touch it? I'm veering somewhere between neutral and excited myself, while simultaneously praying I don't live long enough to see anyone remake The Outlaw Josey Wales.

*By the way, did you know True Grit's screenwriter, Marguerite Roberts, was from Colorado -- my home state. It was also filmed here. I honestly never knew this. I feel something akin to civic pride now.

Last year about this time, Joel and Ethan Coen were basking in the glow of winning multiple Academy Awards for No Country for Old Men. This year, they're hard at work finishing their black comedy follow-up, A Serious Man, which is due out this fall.

While they're in that black comedy mood, the Coen Brothers took time out to direct a 30-second TV ad in support of the Reality Coalition. You can watch the video, which is embedded below, thanks to the folks at Funny or Die. The Reality Coalition wants to "expose the coal industry's misleading marketing campaign for so-called 'clean coal,'" according to a prepared statement.

The Coens have always laced their work with sly, subversive messages, but the video is the first time they've been so straightforward in making a contribution to a, gulp, somewhat political campaign. (Don't worry, the ad itself won't knock you over the head with its message.) The press release says they "were excited to be part of this important project."

I love the line, "Clean Coal Clean harnesses the awesome power of the word 'clean' to make it sound like the cleanest there is." Beyond the concept and the ad copy, what makes the spot work is the deadpan comic timing of the Coen Brothers; the 'suburban family trying a new product' is a tried-and-true advertising gambit, but they give it a good, choking spin. Check it out:

The Coen Brothers are smart. While the critical community has been arguing about the merits of Burn After Reading, which opens wide tomorrow, Joel and Ethan are already knee deep in their next production. A Serious Man started filming in their home state of Minnesota on Monday.

The project was announced in the spring of 2007, just before No Country for Old Men debuted at Cannes. Last month we learned that relatively little-known Michael Stuhlberg and Richard Kind had been cast in the lead roles in the black comedy set in 1967, with Stuhlberg playing a professor whose wife is leaving him, and Kind playing his sofa sleeping brother. While Christopher expressed his hope that Frances McDormand would be playing the wife, that role has gone to Sari Wagner (identified as Sari Lennick by IMDb), one of a trio of seriously unknown Minnesota actors cast in the film, according to an official statement released by Focus Features. The statement also says that the wife has fallen for one of her husband's "more pompous colleagues," who will be played by Fred Melamed.

The other two Minnesota thespians are Aaron Wolf and Jessica McManus, who will be Kind's son ("a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school") and daughter ("filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job"), respectively. I think it's refreshing that the Coens have chosen to go with actors who don't have any previous, sometimes distracting baggage.

As to Burn After Reading, I agree with the quite positive views of Kim and James; I think it's a frequently hilarious and surprisingly insightful "must see." If you still need convincing, listen to the Coens talk about it over at Moviefone. Here's hoping A Serious Man will provoke the same type of response next year.

How do you follow-up a broad comedy starring the biggest names in Hollywood, George Clooney and Brad Pitt? If you're the Coen brothers, you apparently hit the car in reverse and make your next effort a darker story and cast relative unknowns. Variety reports that the newly minted Oscar winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen have cast Tony-nominated stage actor Michael Stuhlbarg (The Pillowman) and TV's Richard Kind (Mad About You; Spin City) for the two lead roles in A Serious Man, their next film after this fall's Burn After Reading. The actors will play brothers in the 1967-set black comedy, which returns the Coens to Fargo territory by placing the story in their home turf of Minneapolis.

In fact, when we first learned of A Serious Man, more than a year ago (and almost a year before the Coens each won 3 Academy Awards, for writing, directing and producing No Country for Old Men), the script was described as being "in the vein of Fargo." Now we get a little inkling more about the plot of Serious: Stuhlberg will play a professor named Larry Gopnik, whose wife is leaving him and whose "socially inept" brother (Kind) won't leave the house. Hopefully, to further repeat the analogy to their double-Oscar-winning 1996 film, the Coens can cast Frances McDormand as the wife, she can then win another Academy Award and Kind (pictured above) can, like William H. Macy before him, finally go from near-obscurity to well-known, well-respected supporting actor within the next decade.