While sadly the Coen brothers will not be developing their story of a World War II soldier surviving a plane crash and the impossible odds that follow, they will soon be developing the story of a World War II soldier surviving a plane crash and the impossible odds that follow. But it won’t star Brad Pitt. But it will be directed by Angelina Jolie. But it won’t be called, “To the White Sea”. But it will be called, “Unbroken”. Wait what?

The Hollywood Reporter is um… reporting that the Coens have signed on to develop the script for Angelina’s directorial debut based on the true life events of Lou Zamerini. True life events that sound kinda like the novel they worked to adapt and film with Chad Brad Pitt.

Wow. Art imitates life. More details are available at The Hollywood Reporter. Btw, does anyone know some of the other films the Coens have script written? They’ve mentioned their role as hired guns before, but aren’t always listed in the credits.

Hello Muncie Boys and Girls,

The New York Times spoke with Joel Coen prior to last night’s private screening of the brother’s latest film, “Inside Llewyn Davis”, and while the interview is limited, Joel does describe the inception of the film as well as it’s overall meaning. Huh. If only we could get a few commentary tracks without Billy Bob Thornton. One can dream.

Drop us a scoop if you were lucky enough to attend last night’s screening. The limited reports so far have been positive (surprise), but we’d love to hear from some real fans.

In a short interview piece over at USA Today our favourite film making duo have stated that True Grit is, “Tonally different than what we’ve done before.” Ethan also states that, “They [Paramount] were contemplating a holiday release, and we thought that it seemed to make sense, because it is a young-adult adventure story.”

The article states that the movie does maintain the humour of the Charles Portis novel, and, ever modest, Ethan says, “The only credit we can take from that is we didn’t change it from the novel. The dialogue is taken pretty much entirely from the book. There’s a formality to it. And no one uses contractions.”

There are one or two more lines from the boys in the USA Today article.

Thanks to David for mailing this in.

Just a quick note to say that one half of our favourite filmmaking duo celebrates his 56th birthday today. Happy birthday to Joel Coen.

Bill Murray I’m sure most of us would agree is a living legend with a brilliant filmography marred somewhat by the inclusion of the grim Garfield movie of 2004 and its sequel two years later. What does this have to do with the Coen brothers? Well something… and nothing…

He explained in a recent interview that he only took the gig because he mistakenly though Joel Coen was involved. Unfortunately for Mr. Murray it wasn’t our Joel, the Joel from the Coen brothers but Joel Cohen (with a crucial H in the middle), writer of the original Toy Story (yay!) and masterpieces like Cheaper By The Dozen (un-yay!).

Let Bill explain…

“I thought it would be kind of fun, because doing a voice is challenging, and I’d never done that. Plus, I looked at the script, and it said, “So-and-so and Joel Coen.” And I thought: Christ, well, I love those Coens! They’re funny. So I sorta read a few pages of it and thought, Yeah, I’d like to do that. I had these agents at the time, and I said, “What do they give you to do one of these things?” And they said, “Oh, they give you $50,000.” So I said, “Okay, well, I don’t even leave the fuckin’ driveway for that kind of money.

“Finally, I went out to L.A. to record my lines. And usually when you’re looping a movie, if it takes two days, that’s a lot. I don’t know if I should even tell this story, because it’s kind of mean. [beat] What the hell? It’s interesting. So I worked all day and kept going, “That’s the line? Well, I can’t say that.” And you sit there and go, What can I say that will make this funny? And make it make sense? And I worked. I was exhausted, soaked with sweat, and the lines got worse and worse. And I said, “Okay, you better show me the whole rest of the movie, so we can see what we’re dealing with.” So I sat down and watched the whole thing, and I kept saying, “Who the hell cut this thing? Who did this? What the fuck was Coen thinking?” And then they explained it to me: It wasn’t written by that Joel Coen.”

For me though, it is great, bordering on spectacular news that Murray is keen to work with the Coens. I hope they’re reading…

Joel and Ethan Coen are among a dizzying list of Hollywood luminaries to have signed a petition calling for the release of imprisoned Iranian filmmaker, Jafar Panahi. I’ll let the petition speak for itself…

PETITION: Free Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panahi, the internationally acclaimed Iranian director of such award-winning films as The White Balloon, The Circle, Crimson Gold and Offside, was arrested at his home on March 1st in a raid by plain-clothed security forces. He has been held since then in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

A recent letter from Mr. Panahi’s wife expressed her deep concerns about her husband’s heart condition, and about his having been moved to a smaller cell. Mr. Panahi’s films have been banned from screening in Iran for the past ten years and he has effectively been kept from working for the past four years. Last October, his passport was confiscated and he was banned from leaving the country. Upon his arrest, Islamic Republic officials initially charged Mr. Panahi with “unspecified crimes.” They have since reversed themselves, and the charges are now specifically related to his work as a filmmaker.

We (the undersigned) stand in solidarity with a fellow filmmaker, condemn this detention, and strongly urge the Iranian government to release Mr. Panahi immediately.

Iran’s contributions to international cinema have been rightfully heralded, and encouraged those of us outside the country to respect and cherish its people and their stories. Like artists everywhere, Iran’s filmmakers should be celebrated, not censored, repressed, and imprisoned.

Signed:

Paul Thomas Anderson
Joel & Ethan Coen
Francis Ford Coppola
Jonathan Demme
Robert De Niro
Curtis Hanson
Jim Jarmusch
Ang Lee
Richard Linklater
Terrence Malick
Michael Moore
Robert Redford
Martin Scorsese
James Schamus
Paul Schrader
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Spielberg
Oliver Stone
Frederick Wiseman

Petition Organizing Committee: Jamsheed Akrami, Godfrey Cheshire, Jem Cohen, Kent Jones, Anthony Kaufman

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.

The BAFTA nominations are announced, just one nomination for the Coen brothers’ latest, A Serious Man. Predictably it’s in the Original Screenplay category. An Education, The Hurt Locker and James Cameron’s Sci-fi bonanza, Avatar lead the way with 8 nominations each. The awards ceremony takes place on 21st February.

Click here to see a complete list of nominations.

Buried at the foot of an article on Variety is a brief mention of Joel and Ethan Coen’s script for a remake of the 1966 Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine starring British heist movie, Gambit actually going into production. Un/fortunately they will not be directing. Producer, Mike Lobell, is apparently searching for a director. As you will have read here on YKFK before, the movie has been long mooted with cast members rumoured to include [Sir] Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth.

I’m kind of glad that the Coens aren’t going to direct this themselves as I much prefer them to work on their own material rather than adapting others’ work. Though I have no problem with No Country For Old Men, indeed it is among their very finest movies, or the forthcoming adaptation (it’s NOT a remake of the John Wayne movie!) of Charles Portis’ True Grit which I am very excited about, I just prefer their own, unique look at the world. Other material they have directed and/or adapted includes Intolerable Cruelty (for which they did a re-write of a story by Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone and John Romano with the intention of Barry Sonnenfeld directing but, when that fell through, they chose to do it themselves) and, of course, The Ladykillers.