I just stumbled upon these images on the intertubes and I’m not sure if they are official and final but, my oh my, they’re pretty…

On August 30th, 20th Century Fox are releasing the Coen Brothers Collection Blu-ray boxset comprising Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing and Fargo. Other than Fargo they are Blu-ray debutants. They will all be available separately and will contain the same special features as their DVD equivalents (links below will take you to the Amazon.com pre-order pages)…

Blood Simple: Director’s Cut —

• Commentary with Kenneth Loring of Forever Young Films
• Cast and crew biographies
• Production notes
• Theatrical trailer

Raising Arizona —

• Theatrical trailer
• TV spots

Miller’s Crossing —

• Shooting Miller’s Crossing: A Conversation with Barry Sonnenfeld featurette
• Interview Soundbites with cast members Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Turturro
• Still gallery
• Theatrical trailers

Fargo —

• Commentary with cinematographer Roger Deakins
• Minnesota Nice featurette
• Trivia track
• Trailer
• Still gallery
• American Cinematographer article on the film

The Coen brothers’ debut feature, Blood Simple, is coming out on Blu-ray and coming out very soon indeed. I just stumbled upon it really and I have no information other than it comes in a Blu-ray and DVD combo set and is out in the US on August 3rd! It’s not even certain if it’s the original cut of the 2001 Director’s Cut. Also for those of us not in the US, MGM have a 50/50 record on whether they make their discs region free or not so I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know if there is any confirmation one way or the other.

Here’s an amazing little interview with Joel and Ethan Coen discussing their debut, Blood Simple, in probably 1983 or ‘84.

Their sense of humour is there and they look sooooo young, which of course they were, Joel would have been 30 and Ethan 27.

Lurking in Twitter I found a link to this, frankly awesome, collection of re-imagined Coen brothers movie posters. The designers at Poster Lab have reworked posters for Blood Simple, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn’t There and No Country For Old Men. I think you’ll agree that they’re truly beautiful.

Click on the images below to see the full size posters;

Which is your favourite? Mine? It’s a toss-up (no pun intended) between No Country and Hudsucker.

I’ll keep an eye on Poster Lab and update if they do the missing movies, I really hope they do.

Just spotted this on Twitter but, for some reason, the Raindance website has made the screenplays for EVERY, and I mean EVERY, Coen brothers’ movie available for download. Now, this includes the screenplays for both A Serious Man AND their next movie, True Grit!!! You heard me right- including TRUE GRIT!

I suggest you get them ALL while you can because I can’t imagine the True Grit one being available for long. Get them HERE!

Obviously most of them are available right here on YKFK and have been for a long time however, I have gotten into a bit of legal deep water in the past for posting up scripts for forthcoming movies before which is why I have not uploaded the ones for Burn After Reading, A Serious Man and True Grit…

The Coen brothers’ latest movie, A Serious Man has been nominated for two awards at the 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards. The nominations for Joel and Ethan Coen in the Best Director category and for the ridiculously awesome, Roger Deakins in the Best Cinematography category. In addition the movie has been awarded their Robert Altman Award which is a special one awarded to just one film’s the director, casting director and its ensemble cast. The award ceremony takes place on Friday March 5th 2010.
The Coens have been successful at the Spirit Awards before. In 1997 Fargo won the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Female Lead (Frances McDormand), Best Male Lead (William H. Macy) and Best Cinematography (Roger Deakins – told you he was awesome!). In 1986 Blood Simple was nominated for Best Picture but was beaten by Martin Scorsese’s After Hours while that movie and Blood Simple shared the gong for Best Director, M. Emmet Walsh also won the Best Male Lead award for his creepy, slimey portrayal of Loren Visser.

Empire magazine’s website has listed what they consider to be the the 20 best micro-part characters from the Coen brothers oeuvre. Here’s are those 20…

1. Loren Visser (M Emmet Walsh), Blood Simple

2. Dot (Frances McDormand), Raising Arizona

3. Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), Raising Arizona

4. Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito), Miller’s Crossing

5. Tic Tac (Al Mancini), Miller’s Crossing

6. Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner), Barton Fink

7. W.P. Mayhew (John Mahoney), Barton Fink

8. Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning), The Hudsucker Proxy

9. Buzz (Jim True-Frost), The Hudsucker Proxy

10. Mike Yanagita (Steve Park), Fargo

11. Officer Lou (Bruce Lohene), Fargo

12. Marty (Jack Keller), The Big Lebowski

13. Penny Wharvey McGill (Holly Hunter), O Brother, Where Art Thou?

14. Freddy Reidenschneider (Tony Shalhoub), The Man Who Wasn’t There

15. Gus Petch (Cedric the Entertainer), Intolerable Cruelty

16. Wheezy Joe (Irwin Keyes), Intolerable Cruelty

17. Deputy Wendell (Garret Dillahunt), No Country For Old Men

18. Gas Station Proprietor (Gene Jones), No Country For Old Men

19. CIA Superior (J.K. Simmons), Burn After Reading

20. Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed), A Serious Man

Nice to see a couple of entries from Intolerable Cruelty which I still think is massively underrated suffering, as it does, from the weight of Coen quality prior to it.

What do you think? Has anyone been missed?  Only ONE from The Big Lebowski? I would have Knox Harrington (David Thewlis) in there right away! And no Jesus Quintana (John Turturro), surely Jesus’ part is small enough to make this list? None from The Ladykillers? Let’s talk…

The guys over at /Film have dug up the “international trailer” for Zhang Yimou’s Chinese “remake” of the Coen brothers’ debut, Blood Simple. Possibly titled Amazing Tales: Three Guns or possibly The First Gun. I really don’t know what to say… at all. Here it is;

I have no idea how this can be considered anything to do with Blood Simple but what do I know? Zhang Yimou has said “We have added a lot of things, and changed the whole feeling [of Blood Simple]… we brought in a lot of comedic elements and changed the relationship and personalities of the characters.” Also click the image below to be taken to /Film where they have two more;

Finally the trailer for the Chinese remake of the Coen brothers’ debut, Blood Simple, has been released. Directed by acclaimed Chinese director, Zhang Yimou and retitled “Amazing Tales: Three Guns” it looking every inch as beautiful to look at as his previous movies Hero and House of the Flying Daggers if a little bonkers. I have no idea how close it will stick to the plot of the original as the trailer lacks subtitles at the moment.

You can watch it over at Firstshowing.net or embedded below;

Thanks to Bunny for rooting this out.