The National Board of Review has announced it 2009 award winners and A Serious Man scooped the gone for Best Original Screenplay.

One of the stars of A Serious Man, Richard Kind, who plays Larry’s dolt of a brother, has said that initially he wasn’t at all impressed with his part when he read the script. It was only during rehearsals that he realised just how good a part it was. Surely this is a first? Everyone who has ever spoken about a Coen brothers screenplay has done so exclusively in glowing superlatives. From straight.com…

“I didn’t think the role was wonderful when I read it. We did a couple of days of rehearsal, and when I got there I could see how important he was to the movie. When I was doing it I thought it would be larger, but everything I did was in the movie. I could see how layered he is and that the movie is layered, but I never realized it from the script.”

Of his character, he had this to say;

“Arthur believes that all of life’s options have been offered to Larry. But Larry has children and a job and accepts his fate. I don’t think Arthur will have many options in the future and that his sadness will continue. He is not going to get a job that will funnel what he does, and to keep from being bored, he flirts with impropriety. He is just a gentle soul, and that is what he has in common with Larry.”

Sure, the movie ain’t out yet but why let that stop you enjoying it. You can buy the Faber & Faber screenplay book today. They also publish similar books for many of the Coens previous movies so why not indulge yourself?

Amazon has a listing for a Burn After Reading book written by both Joel and Ethan Coen, with 96 pages, published by Faber & Faber but no further details at all. Now I’m no brother Seamus but it’s probably just the screenplay book. Faber & Faber have published a LOT of these books and your average screenplay is around 90 pages. 2+2=4.

Thanks to NiK over on the forum I can now offer the script to the ill-fated Coen brothers James Dickey adaptation, To The White Sea. Hopefully offering this up for download here will not get me into legal hot water like the script for Burn After Reading did. I presume I’m on safe ground due to the fact that this movie hasn’t, isn’t and probably won’t ever be made. A real shame because I would love to see it having enjoyed the novel.

Download it here while you can.

Thanks again to NiK for his script-sniffing endeavours.

Hurrah! Thanks to the frankly awesome dedication of You Know, For Kids! reader, Bob, you can now download the script for No Country For Old men in text format. Link below and also in the SCRITPS section above.

No Country For Old Men script

Thanks very much Bob!

Bad news I’m afraid. NBC Universal have been in touch with me to demand that I remove the script for Burn After Reading, now I’m only a bloke on his own so I immediately complied with their cease and desist order. Ah well, can’t really blame them for wanting to protect their IP.

Sorry all.

WOW! Guess what I was emailed today? You’ll never guess so I’m just gonna tell ya- the script for Burn After Reading! The Coen’s ain’t even started shooting this yet, hell it’s still casting, and now we Coen nerds have the script. Oh happy days! I haven’t even read it myself yet I was so keen to share it with you all.

Thanks to Matt for mailing it over and sharing the wealth. I suggest you read it and then burn it.

EDIT: I had to remove it, see later post. Sorry.

Lots and lots of news today! WHOO HOO! First thing’s first, thanks to John who was kind enough to email me the script for the forthcoming No Country For Old Men. Dare you read it BEFORE you’ve seen the movie? I did and it’s great! It’s a PDF file so you will need Adobe Acrobat reader to view it. Easy to find (and free) with a quick Google.

No Country For Old Men script (RIGHT CLICK, SAVE AS)