I reported a while ago that there was a rumour of acclaimed Chinese director, Zhang Yimou may be remaking the Coen brothers’ debut movie, Blood Simple. Well it seems it is indeed true. Shooting apparenlty began on 9th of June on the movie which is entitled ”San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi” which translates as “The Stunning Case of the Three Gun Shots”.

No plot details have been announced at all so I don’t know how closely it will mirror Blood Simple. I can’t see how “three gun shots” is relevant. Watch this space!

File this one under, “say what now?” but acclaimed Chinese director, Zhang Yimou may, or may not be, remaking the Coen brothers’ debut, Blood Simple. I really, really don’t know where to start on this one but I picked up the trail via /Film who picked it up via a site called Monkey Peaches. Apparenlty Yimou and his producer partner Zhang Weiping have scooped the rights to the Coen masterpiece with a view to relocating the action in both space and time to ancient China. The “remake” will be titled San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi which (I think) translates to Amazing Tales: Three Guns.

So- jealous, cuckolded husband + double crossings + kung fu? Bizarre. More when I have it.

Thanks to Bunnie for mailing me. 

I think this only applies to readers in the UK but Sky Movies Indie is showing a “season” of Coen brothers movies building up to their premiere of No Country For Old Men showing on Sky Movies Premiere in HD. They’ve dubbed the season “Scream with the Coen brothers” and have put together this frankly ACE trailer which is a compedium of one of the Coens’ recurring themes- people screaming. It starts on 30th March and end on 12th April.

Information on the Sky site is not very well organised but I’ve been able to root this out;

The Hudsucker Proxy is showing on Monday 30th March at 20:00,

O Brother, Where Art Thou? on Monday 30th at 22:00 and Tuesday 31st at 20:00,

Blood Simple on Tuesday 31st at 22:00,

The Big Lebowski is showing on Wednesday 1st April at 22:00,

Raising Arizona is showing on Wednesday 1st April at 20:00 and Thursday 2nd April at 2:00

Beyond that, scrabbled together information I’m not sure if they’re showing more of their movies or not, certainly there are clips from both Barton Fink and Fargo in the trailer but they have no listings on the site. Perhaps those with a Sky subscription could clarify?

Thanks to Will for the info.

Carter Burwell has once again produced the goods for a Coen brothers movie. He started his collaboration with the Coens with their debut Blood Simple and has worked on every one of their movies since. His score for Burn After Reading is available to buy now on Lakeshore Records on old fashioned CD from stores and also from iTunes and Amazon Digital. Also available on iTunes is an album called Gym Music from Burn After Reading which would appear to be Chad’s workout music.

Filmfocus.com (the website for Focus Features) has an interview with Burwell where he discusses his approach to working with the Coens and his score for their latest movie. Here’s a pertinent quote;

Since the characters [in Burn After Reading] thought they were in a spy movie, Carter Burwell thought the composer should be equally deluded. “I liked the idea that the composer is as deluded as the characters so that his soundtrack fits the movie the characters think they are in, rather than the actual film we are watching.”

His long relationship with the Coens, however, gives his collaborations with them a special quality. Their relationship “makes it easy for a couple of reasons,” explains Burwell. “There is a lot of trust on both sides. They know I’ll finish and get my job done, and they’ll give me the time to try out different things. And I don’t worry that they’ll overreact if I play them something radical. When you are talking about [the relationship between] music and cinema, there isn’t a completely perfect, established language, but ours is as good as it’s going to get. Another big difference when [working with the Coens] is that we don’t worry about the opinions of other people. It’s rare that we sit around and think, what will the producer or the audience think of this? We are mostly trying to make a movie that we think is good and that will entertain us. And then, of course, we hope that other people will think it’s good too.”

If you read all that is out there on the internet since Burn After Reading’s release last week you will notice some common threads emerging time and time again. One of the most common, is the general feeling that the impression the trailer gives of the movie is way, way off. The trailer makes the movie look like a dumb, light-hearted, knock-about comedy which, apparently, it is not. Now, I am yet to see the movie (living as I do in the UK) but it is felt that the movie is a lot darker than the trailer would have us believe. Often it is compared to Fargo in tone, which is a black comedy sure, but it’s more drama than comedy. For my money, almost all of the Coen brothers movies are comedies, albeit black comedies, up to a point with the notable exception of No Country For Old Men which is not original Coen material (and possibly Blood Simple, Barton Fink and Miller’s Crossing- but each of these have funny moments). They are often criticised for the brutal and bloody violence they love to put to screen but it is almost always juxtaposed by something completely silly.

What do you guys luck enough to have seen it think?

Roll on October 17th when I will be able to see for myself.

Do you live in North Carolina in the US of A? Assuming you haven’t landed at YKFK by mistake, you love the movies of the Coen brothers. Well, what could be better than watching them for FREE and partaking in discussions about them with critics and fans? Interested? Read on…

ASHEVILLE — People love or loathe the Coen brothers’ movies. A critics’ roundtable event will break them (the movies, not the people) down at screenings of the films at Pack Library.

The critics are Ken Hanke, Marcianne Miller, Jason Souther and Buncombe County Library director Ed Sheary. All showings are at 2 p.m. and are free.

• “Blood Simple” (rated R), Saturday: Introduced by Sheary, a long-time fan of the Coen brothers’ films, this film was the first collaboration between the Coen brothers. Sheary decided to show the film because, he said, “when I saw this film, I began to really understand ‘The Big Lebowski.’”
• “Miller’s Crossing” (rated R), Aug. 23: Introduced by Hanke, this densely plotted film mixes a couple of Dashiell Hammett novels into a cocktail of shaky ethics and ambition.
• “The Big Lebowski” (rated R), Aug. 30: This film will be introduced by Miller, who for many years worked as a TV producer/writer in Los Angeles and, as an avid bowler, used to roll strikes and spares at the Holly Star Lanes seen in this Coen
• “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (rated PG-13): Introduced by Souther, the DVD includes a comment about the film by Joel Coen: “We sort of combine the Three Stooges with Homer’s Odyssey.”

Thanks to Bunnie for mailing this one in.

What with all the news of The Dark Knight being the bestest movie in the world since time began (according to it’s IMDB user rating) and in conjunction with YKFK’s currently running poll to find out which was the best (or more accurately- most favourite) Coen brothers movie, I thought it might be interesting to see what the IMDB users thought in comparison. In terms of ratings here’s IMDB’s rundown of Coen awesomeness first by rating and, where there’s a tie, I’ve given preference to the one with the most votes…

1. No Country For Old Men (8.4, 118,396 votes)
2. Fargo (8.3, 122,902)
3. The Big Lebowski (8.2, 122,119)
4. Miller’s Crossing (8.0, 31,861)
5. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (7.8, 71,292)
6. Blood Simple (7.8, 19,584)
7. The Man Who Wasn’t There (7.7, 30,891)
8. Barton Fink (7.7, 22,073)
9. Raising Arizona (7.5, 35,918)
10. The Hudsucker Proxy (7.4, 23,968)
11. Intolerable Cruelty (6.4, 26, 521)
12. The Ladykillers (6.2, 27,747)

Now, obviously, this is a live list so it will change over time. I just thought it might be interesting to compare what general movie fans think as opposed to specific Coen brothers fans who visit YKFK. At the moment the YKFK poll has Miller’s Crossing and The Big Lebowski tied at the top with 19% of the votes a piece. Next up is Fargo with 16% followed by Barton Fink with 13%. The bottom two in the YKFK poll unsurprisingly mirror the bottom two in the IMDB rankings, each taking up zero percent of the votes thus far- come on- SOMEONE must like them .

I was very surprised to see No Country For Old Men top the IMDB list whilst it is sixth on ours, but these type of things are always coloured by short memory. Will the IMDB voters still consider No Country superior to Fargo and The Big Lebowski in 10 years time?

Come the end of the YKFK poll (I ain’t decided how long to run it really- perhaps it should never end- your thoughts welcome) we need to decide which of the two polls is more important to us here at YKFK- the one voted for by dedicated Coen nuts or the one voted for by a more general movie fan…

Incidentally, I’m seeing The Dark Knight tomorrow afternoon and am looking forward to it immensely. I am expecting great things but the best movie of all time… nope.

myamericanartist.com has an article about J. Todd Anderson the Coen brother’s storyboard artist. He has worked with them since Raising Arizona so that’s all but their debut movie, Blood Simple. Not forgetting of course his memorable turn as “Vistim in the field” in Fargo (credited with Prince’s squiggle thing) and his direcotrial debut The Naked Man which was co-written by Ethan Coen. Yes his Coen connections run deep. Anyway the article is a fascinating insight into the process of creating storyboards with the Coens. Read it here.

Thanks to Chris for mailing this in.

Blood Simple has been named the 15th Greatest Independent Movie of All Time in Empire Online’s list of 50. They had this to say about it…. “The Coen Brothers launched themselves upon an unsuspecting world with this noir throwback in 1984, and they haven’t looked back. But all their subsequent success – and many of their trademark flourishes – can be dated back to this Texas-set tale of private eyes, murder most foul and more double (triple, and quadruple) crosses than you can count. The style is present and correct in the almost black-and-white locations and bright red blood, but it’s the tone that stands out. Like Fargo without the warmth of Marge Gunderson, or Miller’s Crossing without the qualms of conscience, Blood Simple is the darkest, and arguably up there with the best, of the Coens’ films.”

I was just checking to see if biglebowskidvd.com was active yet and it still is not, but further exploration has throw up the release of a R1 Coen Brother’s Collection boxset, due out on 18th October. It has VERY similar artwork to the R2 release but completely different movies!!! In it will be the new special edition Big Lebowski, Blood Simple Director’s Cut, Intolerable Crualty and The Man Who Wasn’t There. A strange mix to be sure. RRP is set ar $39.98.ar $39.98.