Hail, Caesar! (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2016)

[mfunk9786]

Next film from the Coens will be Hail Caesar, "will tell the story of a Hollywood fixer in the 1950s who works for the studios and protects the stars."

[FakeBonanza]

The plot description and ironic title bring to mind Sweet Smell of Success, which would be more than welcome. If anybody is capable of matching Odets' dialogue in that film, it's the Coens.

[Self]

Josh Brolin joins the cast as assumed second male lead.

[Movie-Brat]

I've read about this in 2005, I was wondering if it would ever get made. I like the premise, still do. So this should be fun.

[flyonthewall2983]

I'd love to see how this would differ from The Hudsucker Proxy which is a big favorite of mine.

[Jeff]

Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton, and Ralph Fiennes have joined the cast.

[domino harvey]

Tatum’s role is described as a Gene Kelly-type star while Fiennes would play Laurence Lorenz, a studio director, and Swinton will portray a powerful Hollywood gossip columnist.

I... I'm actually excited about a Coen Brothers movie?

[oh yeah]

Meh. I'll see it, but I'd be more interested if the Coens were making a film set in the present day for once.

[mfunk9786]

That seems like such an arbitrary reason to be interested or disinterested in a movie.

[oh yeah]

That seems like such an arbitrary reason to be interested or disinterested in a movie.

Not arbitrary, more of a(n admittedly somewhat silly) personal gripe, with the Coens as well as a lot of great filmmakers today. I'm just a little tired of all this nostalgia, this fetishizing of the 50's and 60's in particular; I'm more interested in what artists have to say about the present moment. Not dismissing an entire type of film, not at all, just a bit dismayed by how many films by talented people in recent years have been cocooned in retro-mania.

[sir_luke]

Many talented people make films set in other time periods in order to say something about the present moment.

[oh yeah]

Many talented people make films set in other time periods in order to say something about the present moment.

Yeah, I agree, but I don't think many have been made recently; not Llewyn Davis, not The Master, not Tree of Life, and on and on. Not saying these are bad films, per se... but I find the Coens, especially, irritating and kitchy when they look to the past.

[mfunk9786]

Are you deliberately trolling by picking those films as examples of recent period pieces that don't have anything to say about our modern lives?

[sir_luke]

Yeah, I wouldn't exactly write off Tree of Life as an insignificant period piece.

[warren oates]

Further to all that -- this accusation of nostalgia against period pieces in general just seems silly. I'm not sure why a period piece ought to be required to have anything significant to say about its own era or ours in order to avoid being dismissed as cheaply sentimental. How about that the story just, you know, actually takes place in the past? If a film is interesting enough in other ways, why does it even matter when it's all happening?

[Jeff]

Scarlett Johansson has joined the cast.

EDIT: And Jonah Hill.

[mfunk9786]

This cast is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in a long while. Of course, I felt that way about Burn After Reading and look how that turned out

[Jeff]

This cast is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in a long while. Of course, I felt that way about Burn After Reading and look how that turned out

Discussion moved here.

[flyonthewall2983]

2/5/16

[mfunk9786]

The release date certainly isn't encouraging, but if I had to guess, it's likely Universal hedging their bets, waiting to see what festival reactions are, and they'll move it up into December if there's a chance at awards for anybody.

[The Narrator Returns]

Everybody's been hiding the big scoop about this movie; Roger Deakins is shooting it! And on 35mm for the first time since his last Coens movie!

[Movie-Brat]

2/5/16

A few days after my birthday. Well, at least I'm getting some sort of late birthday gift from the Coen Brothers.

[Forrest Taft]

Christopher Lambert set to star in Joel & Ethan Coen's Hail, Caesar

[flyonthewall2983]

I'm guessing he's Caesar, since you know there can only be one.

[Movie-Brat]

And reunited with Clancy Brown too. I never thought I'd read a piece of news that literally says, "Christopher Lambert to be in a Coen Brothers film" and given that I'm a fan of the original Highlander, I'm pretty excited about this move.