The Guardian has a great piece about Jeff Bridges. Basically it’s a bunch of quotes from people who’ve had the pleasure to have worked with him. Among those quoted are long time Coen collaborators, costume designer, Mary Zophres and cinematographer extraordinaire, Roger Deakins.

Mary Zophres

Costume designer: The Big Lebowski (1998), True Grit (2010)

“Jeff is one of the most fun actors I’ve ever dressed. He’s the definition of a character actor. Not all actors are helped by their costume, and he’s an example of someone who is. Because the costume fitting happens so early on in the process, we’re sort of the first information he gets about the character. He was doing press for Crazy Heart while he was preparing for True Grit, but I had done all this research, so I had all this information that I was sharing with him about the historical period. He took it in like a sponge. He loves the costume fitting because it helps put him in that era. On the fittings for both True Grit and The Big Lebowski, there was a distinct moment where his posture changed and he went into character right before my eyes. That is such a thrill for a costume designer – it’s why I do movies, to contribute to the story by helping an actor find his character.

Jeff makes acting look like no big deal, but he can only pull that off because he puts in so much preparation. On Lebowski, he had all these notes all over the script – from front to back, in the margins, everywhere. He thinks a lot about everything but at the same time he’s very loose. I’m still amazed by his performance in True Grit: so much of what an actor communicates is in the eyes, and yet he brought all that nuance while wearing an eye patch. He’s been good in everything he’s been in. You look at all the characters he’s played and you can never see the acting. Look at Starman: I love him in that. I’d never seen anybody play an alien like that before.”

Roger Deakins

Cinematographer: The Big Lebowski, True  Grit

“It was the funniest and most unexpected thing seeing Jeff in costume for the first time on Lebowski. I’d seen him mostly as a serious actor, things like The Last Picture Show and The Fabulous Baker Boys, so to suddenly see him on set as this dishevelled, ageing ex-hippy was very funny, and quite a transformation. Jeff is so much of the film really. We held the focus on him a lot because there’s a subtlety to his comedy that takes a while to hit you. It’s not laugh-out-loud straight away; you’ve gotta keep your eye on him, the way he develops the character, and that’s where the comedy comes from. You’ve gotta watch him pour his White Russian and spill it everywhere.

Joel and Ethan [Coen] had never used playback so they were a bit sceptical about how much time it would take on Lebowski. But Jeff was funny; as soon as they called “Cut”, he’d rush over to the playback guy and watch the take . In the time it took us to put the board on for the next shot, he’d run back and be in position for the next shot. He did it on True Grit, too. I guess it’s to see how he’s coming across: is the performance that he’s doing and feeling coming over on camera?”

Original piece here.

Far out, man! Universal Home Entertainment have let the cat out of the bag regarding the specs and special features of their The Big Lebowski: Limited Edition Blu-ray due for release on 16th August. Most importantly it is a brand new transfer, not merely a re-do of the 2007 HD-DVD release. It’ll be 1080p (of course) presented in it’s original theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack and even a digital copy. It comes in a lovely looking 28 page booklet and has a bunch of new special features on top of those present in the 2008 10th Anniversary Edition DVD;

New Special Features:

• Scene Companion: A picture in picture mode that features cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and more during key scenes.
• Mark It Dude: On-screen counter that keeps track of all the “F-Bombs”, “Dudes” and “Dude-isms” in the film. (I particularly like this!)
• The Music of The Big Lebowski: Instantly identifies the songs heard while watching the film, and allows the creation of custom playlists.
• Worthy Adversaries- What’s My Line Trivia: Trivia that tests your Lebowski knowledge by finishing lines of dialogue during the film. Play as Walter or The Dude or in two-player mode against friends.
• U-CONTROL
• pocket BLU
• BD-LIVE
• Mobile-To-Go
• uHEAR

Additional Special Features:

• Jeff Bridges Photo Book: Exclusive shots taken on the set of The Big Lebowski by Jeff Bridges himself.
• The Dude’s Life: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi and John Turturro take a look back at their performances and their delivery of the Coen Brothers’ dialogue that became classic movie lines.
• The Dude Abides- The Big Lebowski Ten Years Later: A conversation with the cast about the film’s cult classic status.
• Flying Carpets and Bowling Pin Dreams- The Dream Sequences of the Dude: Featurette on the making of the surreal sequences in the film.
• The Making of The Big Lebowski
• The Lebowski Fest- An Achiever’s Story: An in-depth look at the popular Lebowski Festival, formed by the legion of fans in honor of the film.
• An Introduction: Featuring Mortimer Young.
• Photo Gallery
• Interactive Map

The disconcerting thing (for me at least- I’m in the UK!), is that it will be a genuine limited edition- being available for only a set time although they haven’t stated how long as yet. However previous Universal releases have been region free so it should work outside of the US/Canada.

I fucking love Jeff Bridges! What a legend! Take a look at this video…

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

MTV Movies Blog caught up with Jeff Bridges recently ostensibly to talk about the new Tron sequel, Tron Legacy but they “couldn’t resist” asking him about a possible Big Lebowski sequel. To which he replied;

“We talked about it occasionally [while making 'True Grit'], but no plans man, no plans. No, no, no, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.” After a pause, and with a sly grin on his face, he teased, “But if it happens — what a wonderful surprise!”

It certainly would, Jeff. It certainly would…

The Damn Good Movie Club are showing The Big Lebowski on a big screen in my home town, Liverpool this Friday! It’s their first such event but they plan to have others in the coming months. Their next is a double bill of James Cameron’s Terminator movies. Here’s their blurb on the Lebowski showing;

The Dude abides! Come and celebrate the maiden voyage of The Damn Good Movie Club with a night of Dude fueled movie fun.

Come in costume and show your love for one of the Coen Brother’s most enduring works; celebrate The Dude, Donny and Walter as they make their way through a Chandler-esque story of kidnap, mistaken identity, severed toes, nihilists, doodling porn barons, White Russians, bowling and violated rugs!

Of course I’ll be there, abiding with a White Russian in my hand. Will you?

In light of the recent new from the MTV movie blog, I thought it would be a big of fun to run a quick poll to see which of the two mooted sequels you, the Coen brothers fans, would like to see made, so;

I will run this for about a week, before reactivating the usual “Which is your favourite Coen brothers movie?” in time for the release of A Serious Man (which has already been added to that poll).

The MTV movie blog has been speaking to the Coen brothers about two of their most enduring Coen created characters played by John Turturro – Jesus Quintana from The Big Lebowski and Barton Fink from, err, Barton Fink. Both characters have long been rumoured to be the source of possible sequels/spin offs. MTV put it to the Coens directly and got the following responses;

Of the Big Lebowski spin off;

“We don’t see it yet,” Ethan said.

“That movie has more of an enduring fascination for other people than it does for us,” Joel added.

Bummer. To the max. No “100 Minutes of Jesus” which, for the record, Joel thinks could be a good name for the movie. They do at least recognize Turturro’s continuing interest in the project.

“Oh, he serious. He’s on board,” Ethan said.

“He’s very serious,” Joel added.

So Turturro, not joking. Coens, not interested. Not right now anyway. Ethan does go as far as saying that “it could happen,” but it’s probably best to put any hopes aside for now and for the forseeable future.

But, perhaps more positively it seems Old Fink is more likely to happen;

“It would be called ‘Old Fink,’” Joel said.

“We did talk to [John] Turturro about doing ‘Old Fink,’” Ethan added. “We want John to be old enough to do it.”

The brothers even have (at least) a baseline idea of how they would from the story. “That’s another 1967 movie,” Joel said in reference to “A Serious Man,” which is also set during that turbulent period. “It’s the summer of love and [Fink is] teaching at Berkeley. He ratted on a lot of his friends to the House Un-American Activities committee.”

“He’s got the George Kaufman hair but he’s going gray,” Ethan said. “He wears a medallion.” As if that explains everything. And it kinda does.

“We told Turturro this is one sequel we’d actually like to make but not until he was actually old enough to play the part,” Joel explained. How old is old enough, you may ask? “He’s getting there,” Ethan said.

To be perfectly honest, I’d happily see either one go into production but personally, I’d like Jesus to get more than 10 minutes of screen time!

You will have probably seen one or two of the Volkswagen “See Film Differently” ads over the years. I usually see them before a movie at the cinema. Well director Seth Gordon who brought us the delightful King of Kong has directed a new series of them for VW.  Inspired by The Dude and the “teachings” of The Big Lebowski, fan Oliver Benjamin, founded the “religion” of Dudeism and it is this that is the subject of one of the new VW ads. Enjoy…

Forget Obama! This guy would totally get my vote!

A parody of the now famous Obama “Hope” image artist Ben Swift created this as part of a Big Lebowski art show. He created 80, limited edition prints at $20 a piece but they’ve all sold out

Spotted over at /Film.

You can see other geeky versions of the Hope poster here.

In time with The Big Lebowski’s 10th Anniversary, the BBC wesbite has an article discussing the movie’s cultural impact. You can read it here.

Thanks to Marc and Michael for mailing this in.