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| Date | Story | Source |
| 08-APR-04 |
THE LADYKILLERS POSTER COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED Thanks for the many, many entries to the competition but it has now closed. Please send no more entries. The winners will be contacted once I have taken delivery of the prizes, as I am still waiting for them to arrive. |
You Know, For Kids! |
| 08-APR-04 |
NEW VERSION OF YOU KNOW, FOR KIDS! CLOS TO FRUITION It's been a long time in coming and a lot of hardwork for me but, I am pleased to announce, that the new version of this little old website, should be online early next week, as my Easter gift to you all :-) I have a few things to tidy up with it this weekend and then I will upload it probably on Tuesday. It will now have it's own domain name, youknowforkids.co.uk (some bugger already has the .com domain and, since I'm in the UK, this one fits nicely), there will be no more pesky pop-up ads, no more awful frames, TONS more images from the movies, TONS more information, and it should be a whole lot easier to find what you're looking for. I hope you all like it and I apologise again for the delay in taking it live. |
NEW You Know, For Kids! |
| MAR-04 |
THE LADYKILLERS AMAZING POSTER COMPETITION!!! As you all know the Coen brother's latest masterpiece, The Ladykillers, opens in the US on March 26th, that's THIS FRIDAY!!! The plot of an eccentric professor-turned-criminal-mastermind (Tom Hanks) to commit the massive heist of a New Orleans riverboat casino appears to be thwarted by the actions of Mrs. Munson, the seemingly-innocent little old landlady of the house that he and his three accomplices are staying in, and which is integral to their scheme (they want to dig a tunnel from it to where the casino's money is kept). So they decide that they need to remove her from the equation, but doing so might prove to be more difficult than they expect. I have ONE movie poster signed by the cast of the movie and FOUR unsigned movie posters. For your chance to win answer the below questions and submit a tie breaker. QUESTION ONE: Which Tom Hanks character said "I've done some things in my life I'm not proud of, but this is the first time I've ever felt in real danger of hell."? QUESTION TWO: How many Coen brother's movies has cinematographer Roger Deakins worked on? QUESTION THREE: What is the connection between The Ladykiller's and the Coen brother's debut movie, Blood Simple? TIE BREAKER: In no more than 100 words tell me why you feel that the signed poster would look best on YOUR wall. Send your answers and tie breaker to paul_tweedle@scee.net and mark the subject line of your email - Ladykillers Competition. The closing date for entry is 3pm GMT Thursday 8th April 2004. Winners will be drawn and notified by e-mail on that date. Webmasters decision is final. Click here to visit THE LADYKILLERS OFFICIAL WEBSITE. Good Luck y'all!!! Paul, "You Know, For Kids!" |
THE LADYKILLERS OFFICIAL SITE |
| 05-APR-04 |
THE LADYKILLERS SCREENSAVER FINALLY AVAILABLE Pop on over to the official The Ladykillers web barn and you can download the underwhelming screensaver, it can be found in the "Booty" section. |
OFFICIAL THE LADYKILLERS SITE |
| 05-APR-04 |
THE LADYKILLERS BOX OFFICE TAKINGS The Ladykillers US box office takings now stand at $23,401,000 after a good second weekend. |
BOX OFFICE MOJO |
| 02-APR-04 |
IRMA P. HALL RECOVERS FROM ACCIDENT 'Ladykillers' Star Recovers From Crash CHICAGO (AP) - Irma P. Hall triumphed over serious injuries from a January car crash to attend a private screening of her new movie, ``The Ladykillers,'' at a local Chicago theater. ``I loved the whole thing,'' the 68-year-old actress said. ``You never really know until you see it on the screen.'' Hall plays a formidable, Bible-thumping landlady opposite Tom Hanks in the film, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. She has been recovering in a Chicago convalescent center from accident-related open-heart surgery, a broken arm and a crushed ankle. Hall said she was delighted to be surrounded by friends for Wednesday's screening. ``I've been waiting so long for this,'' she said. ``I couldn't even sleep last night.'' While recuperating from her injuries, Hall said she heard from the Coen brothers, Hanks and co-star Marlon Wayans. ``We're all like family,'' she said. ``They all signed my pillow. Whenever I miss them, I hug it.'' |
GUARDIAN FILM ONLINE |
| 30-MAR-04 |
EBERT THE LADYKILLERS REVIEW Roger Ebert has reviewed The Ladykillers over at the Chicago Sun Times website. He seems to think it's mediocre. Ah well. |
CHICAGO SUN TIMES |
| 29-MAR-04 |
THE LADYKILLERS OPENING WEEKEND US BOX OFFICE The Ladykillers entered the US box office at a very respectable number 2 this weekend. It has made $13,003,000 from 1,583 screens. Scooby Doo 2 takes the number one spot making over $30m but it is showing on over twice as many screens. This gives The Ladykillers a very similar opening weekend to that of Intolerable Cruelty which made $13,076,000. Here's hoping it continues to rake in the dollars over the coming weeks. |
BOX OFFICE MOJO |
| 25-MAR-04 |
AICN GLOWING REVIEW OF THE LADYKILLERS If you've never seen the original 1955 British masterpiece THE LADYKILLERS starring Alec Guinness, don't, at least not until you've savored every deliciously decadent frame of the Joel and Ethan Coen's (who are, for the first time, credited as co-directors and co-producers) gloriously evil redo. As you sit and watch this masterpiece, a thought will likely cross your mind: this is the film the Coen Brothers have been working toward. This is the culmination of all that is good about these darkly rich filmmakers. The Brothers Coen have assembled the perfect cast in the perfect location (baptist-centric Georgia), the perfect situation (a very OCEAN'S 11-ish underground casino robbery), and the perfect music (again pulled together by T-Bone Burnett of O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? and COLD MOUNTAIN fame) to make their most perfect movie. I know some of you Coen diehards will cry foul at this claim. You'll say that this isn't an original screenplay, which seems sacrilegious when you consider that the Coen Brothers are two of the best writers working today. Trust me, this film is as original as it gets, even if the premise is borrowed from some pretty solid source material. You'll whine that by enlisting Tom Hanks and not casting any of their regularly used troop of actors, the Coens have lost their indie credibility. Horsecrap! Hanks reminds us what we should be ashamed to have forgotten: he is the single greatest comedic actor alive today. He made me laugh so often and without telling a single joke. His performance is the stuff of legend. So all you Coen purists, get over yourself. THE LADYKILLERS will knock your smelly socks right the hell off. Hanks plays Prof. Goldtwait Higginson Dorr, Ph.D., a man of letters, who loves his poetry and dressing like Robert E. Lee apparently. His teeth are a mess, his goatee is perfectly groomed, and his manners are impeccable. He smooth southern manners are also top notch, and he uses them to great effect when he knocks on the door of the widow Marva Munson (a Chicago force of nature named Irma P. Hall, who some of you may remember as Big Mama in SOUL FOOD), an elderly black woman who is a faithful churchgoers (a wonderful excuse to hear some great gospel music) and typically sits in her living room under an extremely expressive painting of her late husband. Mrs. Munson has a room to let, and Prof. Dorr wants to rent it. He informs her that he's a member of a small band of musicians who play renaissance-era religious music and wonders if he might invite the group to her house to rehearse in the root cellar. She agrees along as there's no loud rap music (which she refers to constantly as "hippity-hop music") and no smoking in the house. As you probably know, Hanks and his band of merry men are actually criminals using the earthen walls of the root cellar as an easy way to dig a tunnel from Mrs. Munson's house to the offices of a nearby riverboat casino's counting house. Other members of this gang are explosives expert J.K. Simmons as Mr. Pancake (there's a scene with him accidentally killing a dog with a gas mask that is a scream); Tzi Ma as a digging expert (a skill he picked up in his native Indochina) known only as The General; Ryan Hurst as the thankless brute strength of the group named Lump; and the mouthy janitor Marlon Wayans as Gawain, the inside man at the casino whose every utterance contains at least 10 curse words. He swipes every scene he's in out from under whoever is in the room. Most of the film involves in-fighting among the gang members, tricking Mrs. Munson to get her out of the house when the use of explosives is required, and finding new and original ways of concealing their thieving deeds from everybody. When Tom Hanks speaks in THE LADYKILLERS, the rest of the world goes silent. His mannerisms, accents and gestures almost force you to listen intently. At first you think he's putting on these airs to charm the old lady, but you soon realize that this is who this guy is: a scholarly, old-fashioned southern gentleman with an solid criminal streak. On the other hand, Irma Hall is a blessing. When you see her act, you don't see her act. Everything about her looks and feel natural, as if they found this wonderful woman walking down the street and just pointed cameras on her. I've seen her in other films and in plays here in Chicago before, and she never ceases to floor me with her effortless performances. The supporting gang members are terrific too. Simmons and Wayans will be remembered because they have the most lines, but you can't ignore the two men of few words. The General's dialogue consists of one or two words at a time, and Lump's idiot lines are essentially variations on the word "Duh!" But both have their great moments. Among all of these clashing personalities, your eyes cannot help but drift back to Hanks. You always wonder how he's going to react to Wayans' string of obscenities or the threat of violence between two members of his crew. You can always see the wheels turning behind his eyes. He has, once again, created a character that will be remembered and celebrated by film lovers everywhere. Prof. Door needs waffles just to think straight. Does it get any better than that? THE LADYKILLERS delivers on every promise of greatness Hanks and the Coen Brothers have ever wordlessly made to us. Revel in it, people. Thanks to MM@ for the tip off |
AIN'T IT COOL NEWS |
| 24-MAR-04 |
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES TOM HANKS INTERVIEW A smirk crosses Tom Hanks' face. He's just been read the first line of the production notes for "The Ladykillers," which declares the film to be "his first laugh-out-loud comedy in more than a decade." The two-time Oscar winner, here in a Mag Mile hotel to promote his new movie, shifts uncomfortably in his chair. "For crying out loud! There were funny things in 'Cast Away,' to say nothing of 'Catch Me If You Can'! I know they were animated, but how about 'Toy Story' and the sequel? There sure was a lot of laughs in 'You've Got Mail' and 'That Thing You Do." Last time I checked, those all were released within the past decade." The actor gives a knowing nod, realizing that his high-profile performances in such movies as "Saving Private Ryan," the Chicago-made "Road to Perdition" and "The Green Mile" clearly were on the mind of the marketing whiz who drafted that "first laugh-out-loud comedy" line. "Listen, I understand. It's all about trying to promote a film. The marketing department throws down the gauntlet: 'Here's what it is! Here's how we sell it!' Whatever it takes, that's OK, but I don't want people to think I haven't uttered a funny line in 10 years." On the surface, the fact that "The Ladykillers," which opens Friday, is a retooling of the 1955 comedy classic starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers would have been off-putting for Hanks. "So often, I never bat an eye when I hear about someone remaking 'Citizen Kane,' he quips. "It's like, why bother?" But when the actor heard that the new version of "The Ladykillers" was coming from the sibling team of Joel and Ethan Coen, "that made me pay attention." For some time, Hanks -- like much of Hollywood -- had been anxious to team up with the acclaimed brothers. "I was always telling my people, 'What are the Coen brothers doing? Can I meet with them?'" As soon as Hanks read the draft script for "The Ladykillers," he was hooked. "It may be adapted [from the original], but this is very different." An example of the Coen twist was the way Hanks' character -- Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr III, Ph.D. -- is treated when he's not attempting to con his landlady, Mrs. Munson, played by Chicago's own Irma P. Hall. "This is what these guys came up with, which I thought was so magnificent. Often in these caper movies, it gets so programmed -- so structured. So the first time I read the script, I was expecting that when this guy would go downstairs [to join his fellow co-conspirators], he would drop the facade, drop the flowery language and affected accent. "But he didn't, and I thought wow! This is going to be different." The creation of the Dorr character proved to be a treat for Hanks. Sitting in front of a poster for "The Ladykillers" -- casually dressed in a well-worn charcoal-gray sweater and pair of sturdy Roots walking shoes -- the actor provides a stark contrast to his onscreen persona staring back. Turning to glance at the poster, Hanks unconsciously squints. "Oh I don't know, I see a little Mark Twain in there. Certainly some John Wilkes Booth, some [Edgar Allan] Poe, a touch of Colonel Sanders, Inspector Clouseau [from "The Pink Panther" films] and maybe just a little bit of Bennett Cerf." Yet, more than the physical appearance, it was Dorr's amazing way with words that made him a delight for Hanks. Fun, but certainly challenging. "To get out those lines convincingly, it's sort of like jumping on a freight train going full throttle. The way he jumps from one subject to the next. It all sort of just spills out. You start saying that stuff as fast as you can and you can't hesitate, because Dorr doesn't hesitate." In his own mind, Hanks felt he needed to create something of a back story for Dorr. "He says he's on sabbatical from that college in Mississippi, but I think he's been on sabbatical for 17 years. You just know, he got fired for something, probably something a bit scandalous. I just figured that out and put it in the back story in my mind. "He's just one of those characters you have to tackle head first. You dive right into him and never look back." Compared to the solitary experience of filming "Cast Away," where "much of the time I had no one to play off of, except that damn soccer ball Wilson," Hanks loved working in an ensemble environment. In "The Ladykillers," he doesn't "have one scene in the movie where I'm all alone. I'm either with Irma or the other guys." Hanks calls that "an absolute luxury. In many movies, you just go to work every day and sometimes you feel like Steve McQueen in the cooler in 'The Great Escape' -- just throwing that ball against the wall and asking the director, 'How's that?' "You rarely get to have that great ensemble experience in films -- where everyone has such wonderful, well-defined characters." Some of Hanks' favorite moments working on "The Ladykillers" came while working with veteran actress Hall, best known for her portrayal of the beloved family matriarch in "Soul Food," both on the big screen and in the Showtime cable TV series. "She's the star of the movie," Hanks says. "She's the 'lady' in 'The Ladykillers.' She's amazing. She was impervious, a dear, sweet lady who works hard and does her job -- and does it beautifully. Irma's had a renaissance life. She was a teacher, her father was a musician who played the black nightclub circuit throughout the South. "She was a nurse, for crying out loud! She's done so much and most important -- she knows this world. The world inhabited by this Mrs. Munson. She gets her and she gets her good, from the way she sings in church to simply the way she walks in and lectures that sheriff. I love the way she just keeps talking and barely takes a breath -- not letting him get a word in edge-wise. That stuff's priceless." In the final analysis, Hanks wants to make it clear it was the chance to make a film with the Coens that clinched the deal. "Everybody works differently, but here's what I think they do: The two of them have already spent a long time making the movie already -- long before we ever show up on the set. They've already made the movie, we just have to step in and film the scenes. Sure, things change, but of all the films I've made, this one had the least script changes. In fact, the only changes were because they had to get [legal] clearance on simple things like the use of certain corporate names ... stuff like that." Hanks contrasted the Coens' way of filming to another one of his favorite directors -- Steven Spielberg. "Steven will often play on a set. He'll get there and see a possibility and explore that possibility and try different things. He'll still get everything he planned to get that day, but he'll improvise as well." The actor says he was relieved the Coens are not free-form filmmakers -- the type who are constantly tinkering with scripts, "always going back rewriting, bolstering up somebody's part, cutting down another one, changing dialogue, that kind of thing." For Hanks, changes could have been extremely unsettling. "It was very freeing for me as an actor. Sometimes I had to come in with eight pages of very complicated dialogue memorized -- having spent the last three and a half weeks getting it down. It was nice that there were no changes. "Or else, we'd probably still be filming!" Thanks to Joseph Kinney for sending this in. |
CHIGACO SUN-TIMES |
| 23-MAR-04 |
PLAY BLACK JACK WITH PROFESSOR DORR Pop on over to the official The Ladykillers website to play the fun card game. |
THE LADYKILLERS OFFICIAL SITE |
| 23-MAR-04 |
FIRST THE LADYKILLERS REVIEWS FINALLY APPEARING ONLINE At last! With the release of the movie a mere 3 days away in the US (you lucky, LUCKY people)- finally some reviews are online. They can best be described as mixed at best. Shame really that the Coen's output has been so good over the years because the expectation is always very high. Anyway you can read the reviews at the links below: Screendaily.com Herorealm.com Hollywood Reporter Slant magazineThanks to MMM@ for sending me some of the links. |
"YOU KNOW, FOR KIDS!" FORUM |
| 22-MAR-04 |
PREVIEW OF NEW LOOK "YOU KNOW, FOR KIDS!" If you skip on over to the forum you will notice some changes. Basically the aesthetic alterations are in fitting with the site re-design I am working on at the moment. I hope it will go live in the next few weeks. Please let me know what you think. |
"YOU KNOW, FOR KIDS!" FORUM |
| 17-MAR-04 |
RANDOM LEBOWSKI QUOTE GENERATOR FOR A BIT O' FUN There are two (and possible more)... |
RANDOM QUOTE GENERATOR |
| 17-MAR-04 |
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN JOINS CAST OF COEN PRODUCED ROMANCE & CIGARETTES Christopher Walken has joined the cast of musical comedy Romance And Cigarettes, written and directed by John Turturro. The really rather interesting cast includes Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon, The West Wing?s Mary Louise Parker, Soprano James Gandolfini and popster Mandy Moore. The film tells the story of a blue-collar man forced to choose between his mistress and his long-suffering wife. The action will apparently be punctuated by lip-synched versions of popular songs from Irving Berlin, Nick Cave, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, Bruce Springsteen and Engelbert Humperdinck. The lack of live singing is slightly disappointing ? it means that there is little chance of Susan Sarandon exercising the vocals she displayed to such good advantage in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It will be interesting to see how Coen Brothers regular Turturro handles musical comedy. The important thing here is that there is a very good chance of Christopher ?Twinkle Toes? Walken displaying the dance skills he used to such good advantage in the video for Fat Boy Slim?s Weapon of Choice. |
EMPIRE ONLINE |
| 16-MAR-04 |
THE LADYKILLERS IN COMPETITION AT CANNES '04 According to the BBC's website The Ladykillers has been entered into competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival. This is almost the norm for a Coen movie. Apparenlty it's showing there on May 18th which will constitute the movie's European premiere. The article goes on to say that the movie will then open across France on May 19th which doesn't make much sense to me since the current UK release date is scheduled to be September 3rd!!! |
BBC ARTICLE |
| 10-MAR-04 |
THE OFFICIAL THE LADYKILLERS WEBSITE HAS BEEN UPDATED Just popped by the The Ladykillers website and was pleasantly surpirsed to see that it has been updated. You can now dowload the usual things- wallpapers, AIM buddy icons, cards with a screensaver "coming soon". A section about the movies characters which has a quote from each, a photo gallery, and there are short samples of all the songs from the soundtrack. What are you waiting for? |
THE LADYKILLERS OFFICIAL SITE |
| 01-MAR-04 |
V3.0 OF "YOU KNOW, FOR KIDS!" UPDATE Just so you know, I have recently been putting a lot of work into the re-design of this humble site. I think you will all like how it's turned out. I plan to "go live" (using the parlance of our times) very soon indeed. The look is based loosely on the poster for The Man Who Wasn't There and it is a lot more user friendly than this version. You should be able to find everything you want within seconds, it's much more streamlined and less cumbersome for me to maintain as I've lost about 30 pages without losing any of the content which is great! |
BAD SANTA SCRIPT |
| 01-MAR-04 |
BAD SANTA SCRIPT Dennis from The Weekly Script has very kindly pinged me over the script for the Coen-produced, Terry Zwigoff-directed, BBT-starring Chrimble comedy, Bad Santa. Click left to view it in all it's glory. |
BAD SANTA SCRIPT |
| 26-FEB-04 |
LEBOWSKI FEST THIS WEEKEND!!! The annual Lebowski Fest is taking place THIS weekend! I'm envious of those of you lucky enough to be able to attend, it sounds like great fun! You can check out the excellent website for more information. |
Lebowksi Fest |
| 19-FEB-04 |
THE LADYKILLER'S WEBSITE UPDATE The official The Ladykillers website has been updated. You can view a short behind the scenes featurette online. It features interviews with Hanks, Wayans, Hall, Simmonds and more members of the cast and, of course, Joel and Ethan. Hopefully it will end up on any future DVD. Well worth a looksee! |
Official Ladykillers website |
| 16-FEB-04 |
THE LADYKILLER'S POSTER REVEALED Click the link on the right to view the splendid poster. |
Ladykillers poster |
| 11-FEB-04 |
A LOOK AT THE R2 INTOLERBALE CRUELTY DVD MENUS What more can be said? Click the link on the right. |
Intolerable Cruelty R2 menu shots |
| 06-FEB-04 |
NUMBER 60 AND 30 IN THE EMPIRE 100 GREATEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME Empire magazine has been running a poll of it's readership over the last two months or so, in an effort to determine the 100 greatest movies ever. It's no surprise to see TWO Coen brother's movies in there. Fargo made it to number 60 and The Big Lebowski (of course) making it to number 30. Fargo has moved down the 100 since the last time it was compiled in 1999, by 13 places while Lebowski is a new entry. Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope was knocked off the top by, that's right, you guessed it, Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. The other two Ring's movies came in at number 3 (The Two Towers) and 8 (The Return Of The King). |
Empire Online |
| 03-FEB-04 |
THE LADYKILLERS SUPERBOWL SPOT ONLINE Pop on over to Dave's Trailer Page to see the 30 second trailer-ette that was played during the Superbowl. It's also now up at the official The Ladykillers site. Thanks to MMM@! |
DAVE'S TRAILERS |
| 03-FEB-04 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY DVD DETAILS Well mine has arrived, a present courtesy of a friend, and I can now confirm the DVD Special Features of the R1 release though I'm sure many of you have it by now too. Anyhow, there is a short "making of" (in which the Coens admit that this is thier most commercial effort yet), a wardrobe featurette which highlights the excellent work of Mary Zophres, a selection of outtakes which are mildy amusing and the black and white footage of trains that Rex Rexroth gets off on. Not much but then I prefer that the Coens were busy with The Ladykillers than worrying about this DVD. |
DVD TIMES |
| 26-JAN-04 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY DVD DETAILS EMERGING Good new for us guys in Region 2 Land is that the DVD will contain a DTS mix over on this side of the pond, and it ain't too far behind the R1 release either. The R1 version is out on 10th February, the R2 is out a mere fortnight later, on 23rd February. Extras are to be; "A Look Inside Intolerable Cruelty" featurette; a wardrobe fearurette and outtakes. Alas no commentary! |
DVD TIMES |
| 05-JAN-04 |
THE LADYKILLERS PREVIEW IN EMPIRE MAGAZINE The latest issue of Empire magazine has a feature titled The Ten Biggest Films of 2004 and it was nice to see The Ladykillers amongst them. Find below my lovingly transcribed version of the article... DETAILS: in a remake of the Ealing classic, southern professor-cum-criminal mastermind Professor Goldthwaite Higginson Dorr (Hanks) rents a room in the house of an elderly widow (Irma P Hall) from which to plan a casino heist with his band of bumbling associates. When the old lady gets wind of their scheme, the men's minds turn to murder. The enjoyable remake of The Italian Job went some way to assuaging fears that Hollywood updates of British classics could lead only to the end of the world as we know it, in which loveable Cockney scamps would be replaced by Los Angelinos with biceps bigger than thier acting range. And though a few noses were surely put out of joint at the news that the Yanks had got their hands on this Ealing favourite, the association with the Coen brothers should snap the majority of those back into place. The others are just too damned hard to please and need to recognise a good thing when they see it. The premise is largely unchanged from the 1955 original, and the changes that have been made play right into the hands of the Coens - who rewrote the script (rejecting a version penned in 1998 by Steel Magnolias scribe Robert Harling) after signing up when Barry Sonnenfeld dropped out. The location change from quaint 1950's London to modern-day New Orleans revisits the same stamping ground that proved such a success in O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The gentle old woman of the original has been replaced by a far more aggressive evangelical pensioner, and the thieving band - including Marlon Wayans as a casino inside-man who's a jack short of a full house - should provide plenty of scope for Coen caricaturing. Those expecting John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and other Coen regulars however, will be looking in vain since the entire cast is new to the brothers' world. We said it before with Intolerable Cruelty, but this really should be the Coen's big box office breakthrough - with a little help from Tom Hanks. America's premiere Everyman has only had one film gross less that $100 million in the last decade and stands as probably the most bankable star in the world. Since Road To Perdition he's also challenged his amenable 'aw shucks' persona to explore a darker side. This represents his biggest departure yet, taking over the Alec Guinness role as a villain as sharp and smooth as treacle-coated razor blades. It's the same kind of blindsiding opportunity the Coens gave Clooney with O Brother, and if Hanks proves as good as we expect he will, Oscar's favourite son could be his own major competition (The Terminal) for Best Actor in 2005. You'd be a fool not to bet on a hand like this. |
THE LADYKILLERS OFFICIAL WEBSITE |
| 20-12-03 |
THE LADYKILLERS WEBSITE NOW UP The official The Ladykillers website is now up and running. It only really contains the fantastic trailer and a plot synopsis but there are some great images of Hanks and some dialogue excerpts too. What are you waiting for? Click CLICK! |
THE LADYKILLERS OFFICIAL WEBSITE |
| 11-12-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY R1 DVD EXTRA FEATURES INFO Over at Play.com they have some scant details about the extras the Intolerable Cruelty DVD is to contain (possibly, maybe). They have listed a wardrobe featurette and Rex Rexroth's Home Movies which has to contain footage of him and his choo-choo chicks. This release surely has to have a Coen commentary too though. |
PLAY.COM |
| 03-12-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY R1 DVD COVER SHOT YAY! Check this out! CLICK HERE TO SEE IMAGE. |
DVD TIMES |
| 04-12-03 |
JAMES CARTER SINGER OF PO' LAZARUS FROM O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? HAS PASSED AWAY Sad news indeed. James Carter the singer and writer of Po' Lazarus, the chaingang song from the opening of O Brother, Where Art Thou? has passed away at the age of 76. He leaves behind a wife and three daughters. Po' Lazarus is one of the most memorable tracks from the award winning soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou? Thanks to Sladey for pointing this sad story out. |
LINK TO FULL STORY |
| 03-12-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY R1 DVD RELEASE DATE? Unconfirmed news about the Intolerable Cruelty DVD release date but I thought it was worth posting. Scheduled to arrive on 10th February 2004 in separate Anamorphic Widescreen and Full Screen editions the only details we currently have are the audio specs that consist of an English DTS audio track alongside English, French and Spanish DD5.1 Surround audio tracks. Retail is set at $26.98 each. |
DVD TIMES |
| 03-12-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY FIGURES IN EMPIRES REVIEW OF 2003 Empire's current issue (Jan '04) has their review of the year in movies for 2003. Intolerable Cruely was their 6th best movie of the year behind Catch Me If You Can (5), Punch-Drunk Love (4), Pirates of the Caribbean (3), Kill Bill (2) and City Of God (1). The testimony of Baron Von Espy was their third Best Scene of the Year and THE Best Laugh, while Gus Petch's "I'm gonna nail yo' ass!" was the Best Dialogue winner. |
EMPIRE ONLINE |
| 01-12-03 |
NEW EXCELLENT LADYKILLERS IMAGE Happy December everyone!!! What better way to start the month than with this excellent image from the Coen's latest, sure-to-be-masterpiece? Click the link on the right to see an excellent image that really shows Roger Deakins is on form yet again. It was originally posted at Mysan.de. Thanks to Joseph Kinney for pointing it out. |
Click here to see the image. |
| 26-11-03 |
EMPIRE BEST 100 MOVIES OF ALL TIME POLL Empire Online is currenlty running a poll to discover which movies it's readers think are the best 100 of all time. You can vote for 10, so why not pop on over and register your votes? I ain't suggesting you go and list all 10 Coen movies because that would be pointless and we don't need to cheat, as I'm sure some will figure naturally in the shake-up and, indeed in your own top 10's anyway. |
Best 100 Movies Of All Time |
| 25-11-03 |
WORKING TITLE WEBSITE Do check out Working Title's website for some interesting Coen stuff including an amazing The Man Who Wasn't There poster which I would kill for :-( |
Working Title Films |
| 25-11-03 |
INTERVIEW WITH HOLLY HUNTER The Guardian's online film site has an interview with Holly Hunter where she talks (briefly) about Blood Simple and Raising Arizona. |
Guardian Film |
| 14-11-03 |
COENS VOTED 3rd BEST DIRECTOR IN THE WORLD The Guardian's online film site have produced a list of the 40 best directors in the World. The Coen brothers were voted 3rd behind David Lynch (1), who they jointly shared the Best Director gong at Cannes with for The Man Who Wasn't There and Mulholland Drive respectively, and Martin Scorsese (2)... 3. Joel and Ethan Coen Their latest film, Intolerable Cruelty, may have marked a new, "commercial" phase in their career, but no one could ever accuse the Coen brothers of selling out. The Coens' special mix of arch, sculpted dialogue, film-history homage and scrupulously-framed cinematography has never failed them yet, and through their associations with Sam Raimi and Barry Sonnenfeld, have exerted a powerful, if unacknowledged, influence on mainstream event cinema. Until Fargo, they seemed content to mess about in their own particular corner of the film industry; that film's stunning popular success suddenly catapulted them into the Hollywood big league. Substance 14 Look 18 Craft 18 Originality 18 Intelligence 18 Total 86 |
Guardian Film |
| 12-11-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY PROPS AUCTION I was tipped off to the presence of a quite large Ebay auction of Intolerable Cruelty props. There's everything from Freddy Bender's cufflinks to Miles' pre-nup! Thanks to "Bunnie Lebowski" for pointing this out!!! |
EBAY.COM |
| 11-11-03 |
LADYKILLERS TRAILER DESCRIPTION Great stuff we've not yet had time to fully digest Intolerable Cruelty and already there is plenty of stuff surfacing about The Ladykillers! Two Coen movies in 6 months. Below is a transcript of the trailer. Enjoy... Opens with a shot of a church and an old black woman walking down the street. She narrates "John the Baptist said, behold, there's a stranger in our midst and he's come to destroy us". Doorbell rings. Candles blow out and old lady turns around to see Hanks at the door. He says, "allow me to present myself formerly. Goldthwait Higgenson Doyle PHD. I saw the sign advertising a room to let." She says "I'm looking for a quiet tenant". He says, "you are addressing a man who is quiet and yet...not quiet." With a great smirk on his face. Title Card: From Joel and Ethan Coen Hanks narrates, "What I'm about to reveal, you might find shocking." A beautiful shot of Hanks shadowy figure walking down the street. Hanks rolls out a map/plans on the table. Hanks says, "this is a criminal enterprise gentlemen. It is of the essence of this plan that it should appear the money had simply vanished, spirited away as it were by ghosts. So here you are: men of different talents and differing backgrounds and you are all going to be incredibly rich." Meanwhile shots of Hanks addressing the group of oddballs in the basement of the old ladys house, and other shots of digging through tunnels and shadowy figures, along with a shot of money being hid under the floorboards and covered up. Also a shot when he says 'differing backgrounds' of Marlon Wayans pushing a cart behind a big butt. Hanks says at the end of the plan, "by all means let us keep this to ourselves." At that moment the old lady comes down the stairs into their meeting and says, "just thought I'd leave y'all with some cinnamon cookies." Cut to some shots of a church choir singing and some southern black folk dancing in church. NARRATOR: THIS SPRING... A shot of Hanks and Co. in a diner saying, "we must have waffles. we must all have waffles, forthwith." NARRATOR: FOR A MASTER CRIMINAL Shot of a giant explosion and money flying around everywhere. old lady says, "what was that?" Hanks says, "why, I'm not even certain that i heard anything at all." NARRATOR: PULLING OFF THE PERFECT CRIME Shots of money being dumped out, someone's legs sticking out of something and people fighting. Old lady says, "I want to know what's going on." Hanks says, "unfortunately Mrs. Munson has complicated the situation." Wayans says, "well i know how to de-complicate it." As he walks up the stairs with a gun. NARRATOR: WILL TAKE THE PERFECT EXECUTION Hanks says to Asian man with Hitler mustache, "you sir are a Buddhist. Is there not a middle way?" Asian man says, "must kill old lady." NARRATOR: TOM HANKS Hanks is synchronizing watches with his crew and says "in twenty seconds it will be exactly 12:16....fifteen." One guy says, "it will be 12:15?" Hanks says, "no, fifteen seconds." Another guy says, "I don't have a watch." NARRATOR: FROM THE CREATORS OF O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU Wayans is creeping in the room behind the old lady. Returns to group and says, "I can't do it. She remind me of my momma." Shot of her socking Wayans with a pillow. Another crew member says to Wayans, "you've got to except your responsibility young man, and shoot that old lady." NARRATOR: THE LADYKILLERS Wayans with old lady says, "damn." She smacks him and says, "mind your mouth!" smack "this is a christian house boy!" smack "no hippedy hop language in here" smack Marlon says, "you ain't gonna hit me..." (smack) She continues, "I'm trying to help you boy!" (smack) Hanks finally pulls her off of him and says, "so you should madam, so you should." MARCH 2004 Thanks to MMM@ for pointing this out!!! |
COMINGSOON.NET |
| 07-11-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY EARLY DRAFT NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD YERSE! Now we have the Intolerable Cruelty screenplay in text format, available for download. Just pop on over to the scripts section or click here. Thanks again to Dennis over at the newly re-launched Weekly Script! |
WEEKLY SCRIPT |
| 04-11-03 |
COEN TV COMMERCIAL It seems the brothers Coen have made a commercial for British American Tobacco. It's from a series for the company made by directors such as David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Robert Altman and Roman Polanski. Click the link to check them out. Thanks to Julian Kemp for pointing this out! |
TV COMMERCIALS |
| 03-11-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY SCRIPT NOW AVAILABLE!!! WOWEE! The script for Intolerable Cruelty is now available right here BUT my host doesn't allow PDF files so if you email me at paul_tweedle@scee.net I'll be happy to email it right back to you! I should mention that it is quite an old draft and is a little different to the finished movie. Moucho thanks to Dennis Kiracofe over at The Weekly Script! |
THE WEEKLY SCRIPT |
| 24-10-03 |
A LITTLE COEN QUIZ JUST FOR FUN There's a little 10 question Coen brothers quiz over at the Guardian's website. It's just for fun but if you don't get 10 outta 10 don't darken my website again! :-) Thanks to the wonderfully beautiful mjl for pointing this out. xxx |
The Guardian |
| 20-10-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY 7 DAYS US BOX OFFICE Well, after seven days at the US Box Office, Intolerable Cruelty has manages to rake in $16,205,745 from around 2,500 screens. With a production budget of around $60m it looks likely to make some dough once the international (especially Europe- we love the Coens in this Continent) markets are added together. |
BOX OFFICE MOJO |
| 17-10-03 |
EXCELLENT! SOME IMAGES OF TOM HANKS IN LADYKILLERS!!! It is all go for the Coen brothers lately. I still haven't seen thier latest, Intolerable Cruelty, and already there are images from their next movie, Ladykillers, on the net. WOW! Check out the Ladykillers multi media section to see 'em. Thanks again to MMM@ for pointing them out. |
Ladykillers multimedia |
| 17-10-03 |
SIGNED MAN WHO WASN'T THERE SCRIPT UP FOR CHARITY AUCTION Some of you might be interested to know that there is a Man Who Wasn't There script signed by both brothers, up for auction on Yahoo for charity. |
CLICK HERE! |
| 16-10-03 |
A FASCINATING ARTICLE ABOUT HOW THE COENS EDITED INTOLERABLE CRUELTY The Coen brothers (with the help of Roderick Jaynes) edited Intolerable Cruelty digitally, a first for them. This fascinating article details how and why they did it. Many thanks to Joseph Kinney for emailing me the link. |
Coens editing article. CLICK HERE! |
| 15-10-03 |
UiP INTOLERABLE CRUELTY COMPETITION UiP are running a quite bizarre but humourous Intolerable Cruelty competition. You can win a choice of a trip for two to a "luxury spa" OR £500 of Selfridges vouchers. Prizes they're calling LOVE or MONEY :-) |
UiP Competition |
| 15-10-03 |
(VERY) SHORT INTERVIEW WITH CLOONEY The BBC's film website has this TINY interview with George Clooney about his experiences working with the Coens on Intolerable Cruelty. Q- Miles Massey in Intolerable Cruelty is the second idiot you've played for the Coen brothers... A- Joel and Ethan have another film they want me to do, Hail Caesar - where I play an absolute jackass. They're talking about it being my trilogy of cowardly idiots [laughing]. Which seems perfect for me. I'm really lucky that I get to work with guys like those; they're so much fun to work with. Q- You have this obsession with your hair in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and in this one it's your teeth. Why are the Coen brothers doing this to you? A- I think they're desperately trying to ruin my sex symbol image [laughing]. They literally said, "OK, we'll do teeth this time." They brought these whitening guys onto the set, and they said, "we'll whiten your teeth for you." I refused: "I don't want you whitening my teeth, dude." I have no idea what the next one will be - I'm running out of body parts. Q- What was your own experience of divorce lawyers when you got divorced [in 1992]. Was it anything close to the film? A-It was fun, man. I recommend it to everyone! No, it was fine. There was a settlement, we didn't go through any trial. No one had any money, so it wasn't a big deal. Q- Are pre-nups part and parcel of Hollywood now? A- I think they are. I don't think anybody discusses it. It gets talked about sometimes, but I don't know of anyone that's said, "Hey, did you get a pre-nup?" Catherine [Zeta-Jones] and Michael [Douglas] just got married, I don't know what their situation is; she probably wouldn't talk about it anyway. I think it depends who's getting married, I doubt Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward [married since 1958] had a pre-nup. Q- After doing this film have you got the "Clooney pre-nup" drawn up? A- Oh yeah, I think I should do that right away. In fact I have one now, and I'm not even married. If I go out to dinner with someone, I make them sign it automatically. It's not very romantic is it? |
BBC Films |
| 15-10-03 |
AND A (VERY) SHORT INTERVIEW WITH CATHERINE ZETA JONES TOO The BBC's film website also has this TINY interview with Catherine Zeta Jones about her experiences working with the Coens on Intolerable Cruelty. Q- Divorce in Hollywood always creates a media frenzy, so it must have been fun to be able to play around with that... A- In Hollywood everything is so documented. If you go for a drink with somebody, it's passed around the world so quickly. So, yes, divorce is talked about a lot, but it's so much more fun to be able to spin it with dark humour, rather than talk about real people's divorces. Q- Do you have a healthy relationship with your lawyer in real life? A- I love my lawyer. I have to say that of course! Now, I think any lawyer in the world is going to think they're George Clooney after seeing this - "They based him on me!" But I'm very happy with my lawyers. Though I don't think I want to spend the rest of my life with any of them. Q- What's it like on-set with the Coens? A- Well, working with the Coen brothers is just such an easy, relaxed experience. Q- And what did you bring to the role that wasn't in the script? A- I didn't want Marilyn to be that deliciously bitchy, because I wanted people to like her. And I wanted George, and my other husband, to like me. Q- But she stirs up a lot of trouble through her materialist scheming. So she is a bitch... A- Yes, but I think on a character level, the way I approached it was that she really has no idea how much chaos she can create. She is like the eye of the storm. The tornado - all this craziness that happens around her - she just waltzes through it. She's unaware of what she can create. Q- You and your husband were both in Traffic, but wouldn't you like to really go head-to-head in a film? A- I love The War Of The Roses, especially as my husband is in it! I've often said to him it would be great to remake that with me and him in it, because then we could really get down to some serious business... |
BBC Films |
| 14-10-03 |
BAD SANTA TRAILER ONLINE The first trailer for the Coen brothers produced BAD SANTA is online. Starring Billy Bob Thornton and directed by Terry 'Ghostworld' Zwigoff, it looks pretty darned funny. Check it out. |
Bad Santa trailer- CLICK HERE!!! |
| 13-10-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY OPENING WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Intolerable Cruelty opened this weekend in the US and went on to scoop up $13,076,000 and 3rd place at the box office. Perhaps predictably Tarantino's Kill Bill ($22m) took the top spot with School of Rock ($15 million) coming in second. This figure has been reported as a "disappointment" probably because this movie has been hyped up to be the Coen's "Hollywood mainstream" movie, but when you consider that their previous highest grosser, O Brother, Where Art Thou? raked in £45 million in total it ain't too bad a start now is it. |
Box Office Mojo |
| 09-10-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY TV SPOTS There are two TV Spots for Intolerable Cruelty over at Dave's Trailers. They have some footage not seen before, such as Clooney in a kilt!!! Thanks to MMM@ for the tip off! |
Dave's Trailers |
| 08-10-03 |
FREE SCREENINGS OF INTOLERABLE CRUELTY FOR HEAT MAGAZINE READERS Heat Magazine are giving away 1000s of FREE tickets to national screenings of the romantic comedy by the Coen Brothers, 'Intolerable Cruelty'. To collect your tickets for the 'Intolerable Cruelty' screenings on Wednesday 15th October at 6:30pm or 7:00pm, just pick up the latest copy of HEAT magazine (Out 7/10/03) and take it to the box office of a participating cinema (listed in the magazine) and exchange it for a pair of tickets - but remember it's first come first served, so act now to avoid disappointment. |
Firstmovies.com |
| 01-10-03 |
INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT THE COEN'S STYLE A little Google search threw up this interesting article. It's quite brief while also being thorough. As usual, click right. |
Wikipedia entry |
| 30-09-03 |
BAD SANTA POSTER Click the link on the right to see the poster for the upcoming Coen produced, Billy Bob Thornton starring Bad Santa. |
BAD SANTA POSTER |
| 30-09-03 |
A REPORT FROM THE CHEESY LOOKING FARGO SE DVD LAUNCH PARTY THING IN FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA Click the link on the right to see a great report on the really, terribly cheesy looking Fargo Special Edition DVD launch. Oh dear... Thanks again to MMM@ for alerting me to it!!! |
The Digital Bits |
| 29-09-03 |
THIS MONTH'S EMPIRE MAGAZINE IS LOADED WITH COEN!!! It's all go in Coenland at the moment! You all simply MUST buy this month's Empire magazine, it is chock full of Coen brothers and Intolerable Cruelty articles. The first one I must mention is the cracking 5 page article, Cracking the Coens, which deals with trying to work out how the Coens consistently make great movies. It is a great, well-written piece and if demand is high enough (and you're all too cheap to buy the magazine :-)) I will get it on this site somehow. Next up is the fact that they are running free reader screenings at UGC cinemas in the following UK cities on Monday 13th October at 8.45pm; Aberdeen; Belfast; Birmingham Broad Street; Bolton; Brighton; Cardiff; Crawley; Didsbury; Dublin; Edinburgh; Glasgow; Ipswich; London; Middlesborough; Nothampton; Sheffield; Southampton; Stockport and Wigan. All you have to do is take your copy of the magazine to the cinema of your choice from October 1st. Easy! Also Intolerable Cruelty gets a 5 STAR review too! You can see that over at Empire's website or in my review section. And there's a short interview with Clooney from the 60th Venice Film Festival in which he chats about Intolerable Cruelty. Oh, and there's a full page ad for the Miller's Crossing DVD :-) |
Empire Magazine |
| 26-09-03 |
6 x INTOLERABLE CRUELTY CLIPS!!! WOWEE! There are six clips from Intolerable Cruelty over at a French movie site called CineMovies. Click the link on the right to check 'em out... what you waiting for? Thanks MMM@! |
SIX CLIPS CLICK HERE! |
| 26-09-03 |
UPDATED- INTOLERABLECRUELTY.COM!!! Hey y'all! Great news- the official Intolerable Cruelty website has been updated and, my oh my, it's great! It has EVERYTHING you could want! Some ace wallpapers, a screensaver, sound clips, games, photo gallery, production notes and even a pre-nup creator! Go check it out!!! |
Official Intolerable Cruelty website |
| 19-09-03 |
CLOONEY STANDS BY COENS George Clooney, who stars in the new Coen Brothers romantic comedy, Intolerable Cruelty, has dismissed as old hat claims that the film-making siblings have become commercial sell-outs. Critics heaped praise on the film after its premiere at the Venice film festival earlier this month but also said it marked a departure from the Coens' quirkier and less accessible back catalogue, which includes Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou? and Barton Fink. "When I did O Brother, Where Art Thou? with the Coens [in 2000] it was seen as them selling out and going mainstream," Clooney says in an interview in The Independent today. "So I guess it's really me that's the mainstream part of it. Maybe this is a mainstream film, and I'm thrilled to be getting the chance to do it, but I haven't had much luck in the mainstream lately anyway." The actor-director's two previous outings, his directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and the remake of Andre Tarkovsy's sci-fi epic Solaris, both struggled at the box office despite mostly favourable reviews. Clooney has now trained his sights on directing a new project and will be hoping that brings him more success. Leatherheads, which was originally going to be directed by his producing partner Steven Soderbergh, is a 20s screwball comedy about the origins of American football. Whereas he said his previous effort was inspired by the directing style of 70s film-makers like Mike Nichols, this time around Clooney is determined to keep it real. "I really have to pay more attention to the simplicity of [Ernst] Lubitsch and [Howard] Hawks. That's what makes those comedies work." Intolerable Cruelty also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and is released in the UK on October 24. |
Guardian Film Online |
| 05-09-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY REVIEW HUNT I know what you're thinking- TWO updates in TWO days. Just to let you know I now have a quicker way to update the news section so now I have no excuses. Hope you all forgive me for my past delays. Alrighty then, a little request from me to you all. If you should happen upon a review for the Coen's new movie, Intolerable Cruelty, can you please, please e-mail me the link, then I'll post it here so everyone can see it. E-mail me at the usual address- paul_tweedle@scee.net. Thanks y'all. |
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| 05-09-03 |
FIRST INTOLERABLE CRUELTY REVIEW I'VE SEEN Channel 4's UK Film website has taken the time to review Intolerable Cruelty after it's showing at the Venice Film Festival. All in all a positive review (as expected. Heh!). Click the link on the right to read it. |
Channel4.com review |
| 04-09-03 |
SOME AMUSING CLOONEY NEWS Click the link on the right to see the article about some female comedian "marrying" Clooney. At the foot of the article there is some stupid nonsense about claims that the Coens have "sold out" because it looks like they've made a film that the mainstream audience may like. A Coen movie that makes money can only be a good thing as it would make it easier for them to secure finances for future movies. If the Coens have decided to make a commercial movie who cares so long as it's great? Personally I'm gagging for October to roll round and it ain't Kill Bill I'm most looking forward to- it's this little sell out movie. I think people just like to bitch and whine. Hey ho! |
Guardian Film online |
| 04-09-03 |
AT LAST SOMEWHERE TO BUY THE PRESIDENT NIXON BOWLING POSTER I get soooo many emails about where people can buy The Dude's President Nixon poster and at last I've found somewhere that SELLS IT!!! It measures 24" x 36" and is $10!!! WOWEE! |
BUY THE NIXON POSTER! CLICK HERE!!! |
| 04-09-03 |
LEBOWSKI FEST Check out this website! All these crazy people get together annually to bowl and have fun dressed up as characters from The Big Lebowski! Some of the costumes and photos are incredibly good. I wish they'd arrange a UK meeting so that I could go! That's a hint guys! :-) |
LEBOWSKI FEST WEBSITE |
| 04-09-03 |
COEN'S TOP 10 UNDERWEAR MOVIES A reader of this website had the decency to scan in this old article from a defunct UK magazine called Neon. This is from the December 1996/January 1997 issue. Quite funny. Check it out by cliking the link on the right and saving it to your computer. Then you will have to change the file extension from .doc to .pdf as I've had to give it a different extension because my host doesn't allow .pdf files for some reason. If you can't manage this drop me a mail and I promise to send you it back as soon as I read your mail. D'oh! Thanks lots J.D. |
CLICK HERE |
| 04-09-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY WEBSITE UP The Official website for the forth coming Coen movie, Intolerable Cruelty, is up and running. Nothing more than a trailer, synopsis and a couple of piccies at the moment but well worth checking out. |
Official Intolerable Cruelty website. |
| 04-09-03 |
HI-RES INTOLERABLE CRUELTY TRAILER It's like is says- a Hi-res trailer has appeared on the old interweb! What are you waiting for? Click the link on the right to see it or right click it and choose SAVE AS to download it. Easy! |
Hi-Res trailer. |
| 04-09-03 |
ARTICLE ABOUT A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT A TRAGIC TALE ABOUT A WOMAN WHO WENT LOOKING FOR THE FARGO MILLION I hope some of you managed to actually catch the documentary when it aired on Channel 4 in the UK on 4th July. Sorry this is so late. |
Guardian Film |
| 04-09-03 |
COENS TO PRODUCE JOHN TURTURRO'S NEW FILM British actress Kate Winslet has become the latest thesp to be seduced by the idea of appearing in a musical. According to Variety, Kate is the most recent signing to John Turturro's new film, Romance and Cigarettes. Among the confirmed crooning co-stars will be Sopranos star James Gandolfini and Susan Sarandon, but Turturro also has his eye on Christopher Walken to join the team. Billed as a cross between Pennies from Heaven and the classic 1950s TV series The Honeymooners, Turturro's film will feature all its stars singing and dancing and will be produced by the director's good friends Joel and Ethan Coen. Described by Variety as 'a dark comic musical that tells the story of one man's journey into infidelity and redemption,' Romance and Cigarettes is due to begin filming this Autumn. |
Empire Online |
| 04-09-03 |
MARLON WAYANS JOINS CAST OF LADYKILLERS The below is taken verbatim from Empire Online's news report. I actually disagree. Wayans proved, without doubt, that he is a fine actor in the movie Requiem For A Dream. Besides, the Coens would not let us down- Paul. It's always a troubling time for film fans when Hollywood takes a perfectly good, albeit old, cinematic gem and decides to remake it. Last year we reported that the story would be 'contemporized' ? their word not ours ? by Tom Hanks and the Coen brothers. Normally, the presence of such luminaries would be enough to allay our fears. But today, Variety is reporting that the first person to sign up for the movie is none other than Marlon Wayans. Now we'll give you a little time to let that sink in. Yes, one of the greatest Ealing comedies of all times will feature one of the people responsible for one of the worst films of recent years ? Scary Movie 2. Has Hanks taken leave of his senses? Have the Coen brothers been struck down with brain fever? Sigh.... |
Empire Online |
| 04-09-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY UK RELEASE DATE OCTOBER 24th |
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| 19-03-03 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY US RELEASE DATE OCTOBER 10th |
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| 19-03-03 |
LADYKILLERS SCRIPT REVIEW The Coen brothers are set to remake the old Ealing comedy classic, The Ladykillers, next. Follow this link for a review of the script. |
Film Jerk |
| 19-03-03 |
LOTS OF DVD NEWS!!! April and May will see a bumper crop of Coen brothers DVD releases. Once again the lucky people in the Region 2 area will be treated well with the, seemingly, R2 ONLY release of a Special Edition Fargo DVD on April 21st. May 20th sees the long awaited R1 releases of both Miller's Crossing AND Barton Fink! For more information head on over to the DVD section! |
My Mate M@ |
| 19-03-03 |
BAD SANTA REVIEW!!! A user over at Ain't It Cool News, "Mean Mr Mustard", has reviewed the Coen produced movie, Bad Santa, starring Ed Crane himself, Billy Bob Thornton. Hit the link to read. |
Ain't It Cool |
| 10-11-02 |
TOM HANKS TO STAR IN COEN'S NEXT MOVIE - LADYKILLERS Don't like Tom Hanks mean and moody? Does his Road to Perdition murderous gangster shtick make you ache for those innocent days of big and, dare we say it - fondly reminisce about Turner and Hooch? Well fear not, for The Nicest Man in Hollywood is back - for one film at least. Scheduled to warm our hearts and put a Christmas spring in our steps during December 2004, cinema's all round nice guy will be playing an all round nice, and magical - train conductor in Polar Express. Hanks will team up once more with Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis and Cast Away scribe William Boyles in a tale about a young boy who still believes that Santa Claus truly does blast around the sky depositing presents on a certain 25th each year. The little boy's delusional conviction leads to a fantasy trip to the North Pole aboard a magical steam train driven by Hanks. No three hour delays outside Crewe for this rail journey. His return to heart-warming family fare might, however, turn out to be remarkably short-lived as Hanks is already lined up to collaborate with the Coen brothers in a remake of the classic Ealing comedy, The Ladykillers. In what will apparently be a 'contemporized' version of the wondrous Alec Guinness and Peter Sellars flick, set in the deep South rather than the original's King's Cross, the comedy will turn decidedly black in nature. Following a gang of thieves' vain attempts at bumping off their hideout's cantankerous old landlady, the film should be another perfect opportunity for Hanks to let slip his extremely well hidden inner demon. |
Empire Online |
| 10-11-02 |
TOM HANKS TO STAR IN COEN'S NEXT MOVIE - LADYKILLERS Tue., Sep. 24, 2002, 10:00pm PT Hanks aboard 'Express' Thesp's Christmas pic slated for 2004 release By MICHAEL FLEMING Tom Hanks has firmed up his next two starring roles. He'll first take a steam train to the North Pole in the Robert Zemeckis-directed "Polar Express," then play a thief in the Coen brothers-directed remake of "The Ladykillers" at Touchstone. Hanks and Playtone partner Gary Goetzman laid the tracks several years ago at Castle Rock for a CGI adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's celebrated picture book "Polar Express." The project, about a boy whose belief in Santa Claus results in a fantasy trip to the North Pole aboard a magical train, has recently gathered a full head of steam. Robert Zemeckis has been working on the script with "Cast Away" scribe William Broyles, and the film is nearly set for a February start date. Pic is being eyed for a holiday 2004 release, with Hanks playing the train conductor in what might be the most CGI-ambitious holiday film since "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." The package isn't completely wrapped yet because of a pre-existing arrangement Warner Bros. has with Universal on Castle Rock-driven fare that dates back to "The Green Mile." Because WB got domestic distribution on that Stephen King adaptation, Universal has the right to board "Polar Express" as half-partner and domestic distributor, a decision the studio is expected to make next month. Either way, the film is expected to be the next project by "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" producers Playtone. Hanks and Goetzman will produce with Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey of ImageMovers, as well as Van Allsburg and Bill Teitler of Golden Means Prods. While Hanks could conceivably slip in a different movie right after, all signs point to him following "Polar Express" with the black comedy "Ladykillers." The film is a contemporized remake of the 1955 Ealing comedy that starred Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. Penned by Joel and Ethan Coen and set in the South, the pic revolves around a crusty old landlady who unwittingly rents rooms to a group of thieves looking to use her haunt as a hideout. They try to dispose of the matron but find her fairly indestructible. Tom Jacobson, Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld are producing. The Coens will take on "Ladykillers" after they complete "Intolerable Cruelty," another black comedy they wrote that starred George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Date in print: Wed., Sep. 25, 2002, Los Angeles |
John S. Wiffgraf by e-mail- THANKS! |
| 10-11-02 |
BARTON FINK DVD AVAILABLE IN FRANCE!!! For some reason the long awaited BARTOK FINK DVD is available in France! It is in English with French subtitles. I will sort out some more information when my copy arrives! |
fnac.com |
| 11-08-02 |
ALAN SCHOOLCRAFT'S ANSWERS! Sorry for the delay patient Coen fans but here, at last, are Alan Schoolcraft's answers to YOUR questions!!! The answers were recieved in May- again my fault for the delay. A lot of questions were repeated over and over so I haven't credited any question to any particular people but you know who you are. Also I have to say I was disappointed with the response to this. I was going to make it a whole new section but there really isn't any point now as both myself and Alan were rather disappointed with the dribble of questions I got sent. Anyway here ya go; 1. Why does Jennifer Jason Leigh recieve a "thank you" credit at the end of a lot of the Coen brother's films after the one she starred in, The Hudsucker Proxy? Alan Schoolcraft- Jennifer usually comes in during post production and does dialogue tracks. Mostly one or two lines. That's her voice when the "little man" in O Brother, Where Art Thou? says "He ain't lyin'" 2. When will the Coen brothers start filming Intolerable Cruelty? AS- At present we are in Pre-Production. Shooting starts the end of June in Los Angeles. No release date is set yet, but the film will be delivered to the studio sometime before Summer 2003. 3. Is there any talk of getting Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink out on DVD anytime soon? AS- Yes actually, they would have been out by now, but Joel and Ethan asked Fox to wait so we could shoot a special segment to add to the DVD. That will be done over the Summer. Sorry, details are hush hush. 4. I have an amazing idea for a script for a movie that is right up the Coen brother's street. How can I send it to them and will they accept this kind of submission? AS- Sorry, but they only make what they write. 5. How do the Coens maintain their quality output? 9 films now and every single one is no less than brilliant. AS- Loose women and tight jeans. 6. Was there ever going to be a Fargo TV series? If so what's happening/happened with it? Any details? AS- Yes. Polygram Films owned the rights to the film and decided to make a TV series out of it. A pilot was shot, but no network picked it up. It was a strange program to say the least. Sort of a cross between "Northern Exposure" and a cop drama. Joel and Ethan had nothing to do with it whatsoever. 7. Where is "Bad Santa" filming? NYC? AS- Bad Santa is filming in Los Angeles this Summer. Actually, thier production offices are right next to ours on the Warner Hollywood lot! I would like to say a very big thank you to Alan for taking the time out to answer these questions and hopefully there will be more in the future. Thanks. |
Alan Schoolcraft by e-mail |
| 11-08-02 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY HAS BEGUN SHOOTING! Just a small news snippet- over the last few weeks pictures of George Clooney on the set of the latest Coen brothers masterpiece, Intolerable Cruelty, have been appearing in rags including the Daily Star and Daily Mirror. Both papers are not worth the paper they're printed on however. |
Horrid UK tabloids |
| 11-08-02 |
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY CASTING NEWS! Billy Bob Thornton and Geoffrey Rush will take minor roles in the Coen Brothers' new picture, Intolerable Cruelty. The film stars Catherine Zeta Jones as a Hollywood gold-digger who leaves a string of husbands in her wake, and George Clooney as her hard-ball divorce attorney. Thornton will play a preening soap-opera actor, and Rush a television director. Thornton worked with the Coens on last year's The Man Who Wasn't There, while Clooney starred in the siblings' chain-gang comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou. |
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| 11-08-02 |
COENS PLAN NEW MUSICAL! The Coen brothers are planning to produce and direct a musical entitled Romance and Cigarettes, according to Variety. Sopranos star, James Gandolfini, who appeared in the Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There, is favourite to play the lead role, from a script written by actor and long time Coen collaborator, John Turturro. The film is set in Bensonhurst, New York and is described as being a cross between Pennies From Heaven and classic US sitcom The Honeymooners. While the cast in the Coens' last musical endeavour O Brother, Where Art Thou? mimed to other people's recordings, in Romance and Cigarettes the actors would do all their own singing. The Coens are also apparently keen to sign Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken, both competent singers and dancers, to the project. Shooting is expected to begin early next year after the Coens have finished their current film, the black comedy Intolerable Cruelty starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. |
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| 02-04-02 |
DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION TO ASK THE COEN BROTHER'S CLOSEST COLLEAGUE? I have been contacted by Alan Schoolcraft, who works on a daily basis with Joel and Ethan Coen. He has told me that if any of my 'lurkers' (his word for website visitor I think) have any questions for HIM (not Joel and Ethan) then he is happy to answer them. SO if you have any questions for my Alan e-mail me at the usual address (paul_tweedle@scee.net) with the Subject line marked "Questions for the Slave" (again his words not mine) and I'll collate the best questions and get them answered! How's that for an offer you can't refuse? |
Alan Schoolcraft by e-mail |
| 02-04-02 |
SCREENGRABS FROM THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE DVD Just click these links and you'll see 'em. Three pics all from the forthcoming R1 DVD of The Man Who Wasn't There. Pretty neat I'm sure you'll agree. This is shaping up to be the best Coen brothers DVD by far! R1 is released on 16th April with the R2 version scheduled for the 22nd. |
My "source" ;-) |
| 02-04-02 |
HAVE THE COENS GONE AD NUTS? I can confirm that the Coen brothers spent last weekend, 30th and 31st March, shooting a commercial for GAP! No idea what happens in it beyond the fact that it's just a one or two shot spot with Dennis Hopper sitting in a deck chair with Christina Ricci approaching him. If anyone manages to grab this in a digital format I would love to see it. E-mail me at the usual address- paul_tweedle@scee.net. Thanks. |
Alan Schoolcraft by e-mail |
| 08-03-02 |
COEN BROS PRODUCE TERRY 'GHOST WORLD' ZWIGOFF'S NEXT MOVIE, BAD SANTA Joel and Ethan Coen are set to work with Terry Zwigoff of Ghost World fame in the capacity of Executive Producers on his next movie, BAD SANTA. The movie centres around a pair of con men who masquerade as Santa and one of his elves in order to rob the shopping malls they're "working" at. Apparently a young boy reminds them what Christmas is all about and they reform. Apparently Bill Murray is in talks to star. |
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| 08-03-02 |
CONFIRMATION OF THAT STRANGE BLOOD SIMPLE DIRECTOR'S CUT COMMENTARY TRACK I have been in contact with someone who works rather closely with Joel and Ethan Coen, and I asked who did the commentary track for the R1 Blood Simple Director's Cut DVD, and he was surprisingly forthcoming with the information. "Kenneth Loring" from Forever Young films is actually played by Jim Piddock who is perhaps best known for his role as Fred Willard's co-commentator in Best Of Show. Everything he said in the track was scripted by Joel and Ethan which explains a lot ;-) |
A "source" |
| 08-03-02 |
COEN'S GAMBLE ON GRANT British crime caper, Gambit, is soon to get a re-make Coen style as Joel and Ethan have signed a deal to re-write Ronald Neame's comedy with a mind to putting Hugh Grant in the lead. The original 1966 film saw Michael Caine as a suitable sticky-fingered thief who teams up with Shirley MacLaine to 'liberate' an expensive statue from its rich owner. Needless to say, things don't exactly go to plan and a series of double-crosses send the whole operation in to disarray. The Gambit remake has had a number of false starts since the idea was first mooted with high-profile writers- including West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin- attached to develop the script only to be whisked off by other commitments. However, now that the Coen brothers are on board, writing is set to begin immediately. The pair currenlty have a little time on thier hands while they wait to begin work on Intolerable Cruelty, which is currently awaiting the availability of star George Clooney, still tied up by his directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. |
Empire Online |
| 22-01-02 |
THE MOST HUMBLE APOLOGY PART II! Jeeze, I don't know where to begine with this apology! It's been exactly three months since I last touched this website- I'm ashamed of myself! Anyways I'm back now and if you read on you'll be as excited as a kid on Chistmas Eve when you read all about the forthcoming The Man Who Wasn't There DVD, Intolerable Cruelty and the other bits and pieces you'll find here. Happy New Year! |
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| 22-01-02 |
COEN BROS SHOOT COMMERCIAL Famed indie filmmakers the Coen Brothers who are used to working on shoestring budgets, hired 97 actors and 60 crew members and shot more than 8,000 feet of film for a 30 second commercial (45 feet of film) that is due to air on Feb 3rd during the Super Bowl, according to a news release by H&R Block, the company featured in the spot. The commercial, which employs the Beatles' recording "Taxman", focuses on recent changes to the US tax system. The news release quoted the Coens as saying (presumable tongue-in-cheek), "We have always been fascinated with the mysteries of the tax code and with the people who struggle so mightily to plumb it's depths. Seems to me to be a very, very odd choice for the Coens, but if any readers in the US manage to record the ad during the Superbowl I would really appreciate it if you could eand me it at paul_tweedle@scee.net. |
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| 13-01-02 |
THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE DVD DETAILS- EXCLUSIVE!!! In what could be You Know, For Kids' first ever exclusive I bring you details of the forthcoming Man Who Wasn't There DVD and, boy, is it good! Courtesy of a shadowy figure preferring to remain anonymous, without further ado... First thing's first the Coens HAVE recorded their first commentary track and it is supposed to be really funny, as we would expect I suppose. Joining Joel and Ethan on commentary duties is the films undisputed star Billy Bob Thornton! How good will that be? There will also be ONE (only one boo!) deleted scene which encompasses Reidenschneider's complete closing statement. Clocking in at nearly three minutes of Tony Shalhoub's amazing tommy gun prattle it should be great! Other extras include; two TV promos; an interview with Roger Deakins the movie's cinematographer; a "making of" featurette; filmographies and some "hidden gems". Like me you probably cannot wait for this one to plop through the door but, alas, we have to, but only till April 16th when it gets it's Region 1 (US and Canada) release! |
My "source" ;-) |
| 13-01-02 |
THE FIRST AFI AWARDS HONOUR COEN ACCOMPLICE Early January The American Film Institute added yet another movie awards ceremony to the calandar. The cinematographer of The Man Who Wasn't There, Roger Deakins, snaffled up the gong for Best Cinematography for those sumptious black and white shots. Other winners of note were; Best Move to the fantastic Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring; Best Screenwriter to Christopher Nolan for his amazing masterpiece, Memento and Best Director to Robert Altman for Gosford Park. |
Guardian Unlimited |
| 13-01-02 |
ZETA JONES REPLACES ROBERTS The Coen's next certain masterpiece and 10th movie, Intolerable Cruely, has long been mooted to be the reteaming of Clooney and Julia Roberts after appearing together in Steven Soderberg's Ocean's 11, but news has reached me that the actress has now been replaced by Catharine Zeta Jones. |
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| 13-10-01 |
THE MOST HUMBLE APOLOGY! Before I crack on with the many, many news updates please allow me to apolgise for the appalling lack of updates over the past 3 months. My life has had quite a few changes since April and fitting in updates has been the bottom of my list of priorities. Now my life seems to have gotten itself in order and I will have more time to devote to this site from now on. It couldn't have happened at a worse time due to the Coen's next masterpiece recieving a lot of press attention of late. I hope the new The Man Who Wasn't There pics will help you forgive me. Again - I am sorry. |
My heart. |
| 13-10-01 |
COENS AND CLOONEY TO REUNITE! Recovering from the budget-bust that caused their Brad Pitt project, To The White Sea, to get shelved, the Coen brothers have now lined up thier next project and it ma end up reuniting them with George Clooney. The O Brother, Where Art Thou? star is hotly tipped for the lead in the Coens' upcoming black romantic comedy Intolerable Cruelty. Clooney would take the role of a Hollywood divorce lawyer who finds himself the target of a serious grudge, when a client's ex-wife decides to relieve her post-marital stress by forming a vendetta against him. Cue unexpected and unconventional romantic wranglings. The Coens' are reportedly also keen to enlist Clooney's Ocean's Eleven co-star Julia Roberts to join him. Intolerable Cruelty has taken something of a twist, turny route to production, according to Variety. The film starting out in the hands of Ron Howard and Andrew Bergaman before becoming poised for direction by Jonathan Demme, starring Hugh Grant and Tea Leoni. Will Smith was later in talks, before Demme pulled out and the project landed in the more than capable hands of Joel and Ethan Coen, who had been brought in several years previously to work on the script. Confused? Good. |
Empire Online |
| 13-10-01 |
COEN BROTHERS PICK CLOONEY FOR BLACK COMEDY Georger Clooney must have made a good impression on Joel and Ethan Coen when he starred in O Brother, Where Art Thou? The cinema siblings have cast the foremer ER star as the lead in their new film, Intolerable Cruelty, a dark romantic comedy for Universal Pictures. Intolerable Cruelty centres on the love/hate relationship between the world's toughest divorce lawyer, played by Clooney, and a Beverly Hills gold-digger. Unusually, the Coens have scripted the movie from an original draft by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone. The film, which is being produced by Imagine Entertainment and Alphaville Films, will shoot sometime next year, according to Hollywood Reporter. |
Gurdian Online, Film Unlimited |
| 13-10-01 |
PRINT AD FOR UK RELEASE OF THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE This month's film mags have full page ads for The Man Who Wasn't There. I've scanned it in and you can see the full size one by clicking on it's little clone on the right. |
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| 03-10-01 |
FREE SCREENINGS OF THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE!!! Excellent news is that this month's Empire (November issue) is offering free screenings of the Coen's latest, The Man Who Wasn't There! Excellent news that is if you live near one of the cinemas participating- which I don't! Anyway, all you have to do to qulaify is buy the mag and take it along to one of the participating cinemas listed below; Showing on Saturday 13th October @ 10-10:30am- Southampton Odeon AND Sunday October 14th @ 10-10:30am- Birmingham Warner Star City; Brighton UGC; Bristol Showcase; Cardiff UGC; Glasgow Odeon; Leeds Showcase; Leicester Odeon; Nottingham Showcase; Sheffield Odeon. 10:30-11am- Gateshead UCI Metro Centre; London Warner West End; Manchester UCI Filmworks; Norwich UCI. If anyone manages to make it to one of these advance showings, which are almost two weeks before the release date, I would love it if you could send me a review which I'll post up in the reviews section. |
Empire Magazine |
| 03-10-01 |
COEN BROTHERS SUCCESS IN THE "ULTIMATE MOVIE POLL" Empire has been running what they're calling, The Ultimate Movie Poll of it's readership for a few months now and this month's issue has the results. Joel was deemed to be the 10th Best Director (Spielberg took the top spot there), and they were voted second Best Screenwriters (behind Quentin Tarantino!). In the Best Film category they scored with Fargo at number 39, and The Big Lebowski at number 35- of course Star Wars nabbed the number one spot! Actors who have appeared in Coen movies did alright too with; Tim Robbins (49); George Clooney (21); Nicholas Cage (18); and Brad Pitt (who is appearing in the next movie To The White Sea (17). As for actresses- Holly Hunter (30); Frances McDormand (18); and Julianne Moore (4). In the best Supporting Player category there's a gold, silver, bronze with William H. Macy (1); Steve Buscemi (2) and Philip Seymore Hoffman (3), plus John Goodman (12). |
Empire Magazine |
| 03-10-01 |
RODERICK JAYNES SPEAKS!!! Friday September 28, 2001 The Guardian Venerated film editor Roderick Jaynes comes out of retirement only to work for 'les frères Coen'. Here he reveals the excruciating - nay, comic - shenanigans that led to the naming of their new movie One of the hallmarks of old age is the gradual realisation that one is no longer conversant with, or even much aware of, the surrounding culture. Living in Haywards Heath these past 30 years, largely retired from the movie business, I must confess that until recently I hadn't heard of - let alone seen - Pearl Harbor, The Klumps, Vertical Limit, or Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Well, Pearl Harbor I'd heard of, of course, in its geographic and historical sense, but the motion picture was not on my radar, so to speak. Someone told me that its star was Ben Affleck, which I asked them to repeat a number of times in the belief that they were trying to expel phlegm. Other sources confirm that such is in fact the name of a contemporary cinema star. Live and learn. I mention this to explain my puzzlement at many of the candidates for the title of the movie whose script these remarks introduce, candidates bandied back and forth by the film-makers as I tried to concentrate on the picture's montage. I am something in the nature of a film editor emeritus, and brothers Joel and Ethan Coen are self-styled cinéastes who had begun shooting this, their latest movie, with little concern as to what it might ultimately be called. "Pansies Don't Float" was an early working title that, thank goodness, they were prevailed upon to discard. They had likewise been coaxed away from more opaque titles aiming to peg the movie generically as a noir : "I, the Barber," "The Man Who Smoked Too Much," and "The Nirdlinger Doings". The Coens entertained (or entertained themselves with) "Missing, Presumed Ed" and "Mr Mum" - both references to the alienated and closemouthed central character Ed Crane, played by William Thornton. They rejected as "too 60s" the one candidate of theirs that I found not uninteresting: "I Love You, Birdie Abundas!" At first I kept my head down as they argued, struggling to make simple match cuts in footage shot by people patently ignorant of the simplest mechanics of scene construction. The chore was familiar to me, this being my seventh picture with these film-makers, and prompted me to wonder whether a deft and resourceful film editor mightn't sometimes be less the director's friend than his enabler, licensing the sloppiness and ineptitude of he who might otherwise reform. This is a theme upon which, sadly, I could at this point write a book. Friends at Faber & Faber, take note. As I mentioned before, I am retired. I now unsheath my scissors, as it were, only to work for les frères Coen. They pay well, no doubt of necessity, since their footage, or their persons, frighten away those editors not in their golden years who would be more willing to trade some salary for a feature film on the old résumé. In the case of this film, they promised to sweeten the pot with a paid holiday weekend in Blackpool if I should come up with a title they would end up using. I was happy enough to give it some thought. Titles, I believe, should be straightforwardly descriptive. Gimmicks, whimsy, and effortful grandeur are simply not on. Accordingly, my suggestion was the direct and unfussy "Edward Crane". Imagine my surprise when the film-makers called as I was stuffing seaside togs into my valise, to say that they felt "we" still hadn't "nailed it". I offered what I thought was a sensible amplification, "The Barber, Crane." When this too was rejected I began to question my own decision to engage with cretins. All the more when they explained that they were looking for something poetic, like "The Other Side of Fate", which they both found appealing but were disinclined to use because of their uncertainty as to whether Fate had more than the one side. "None Know My Name" was another of their favourites, rejected only because of its superabundance of m's and n's. They had solicited my advice, they now told me, because they thought that, being British, I might know some "Shakespearean stuff that might work". They propounded the theory that a good title intrigues, is suggestive, allusive, and makes one want to know more. I was going to suggest "The Man with the Gas Hearth" but, mindful that they also wanted something that savoured of pulpy confession, proposed "My Hearth Is Gas". This prompted a few minutes' thought from Ethan at the end of which he asked: "Is that from the sonnets?" Perhaps one should not draw back the veil from the creative process. Here are two men respected in the arts about whom it is possibly not necessary to know that they are in fact clods. But on the other hand this knowledge might be tonic to a general public imbued with perhaps too much awe for creative personages. At any rate, my musings on their personal vacuity bore me to what I thought was not a bad title for their film: "The Man Who Wasn't There." And indeed, the brothers received it with enthusiasm. But the next day a crestfallen Ethan told me that the title had already been used: it was the name of a Steve Guttenberg comedy of the 1980s. When I asked the obvious question, to wit, "Who is Steve Guttenberg?" Joel giggled, and Ethan stared. "Duh," he said. "Police Academy?" Well, I will take their word that there is such a person who starred in such a movie; as I confessed at the beginning of this introduction, I am hardly an authority. At any rate, Joel proposed that, to avoid infringement, my title be amended to "The Man Who Wasn't All There". When I pointed out that the added word, though short, significantly altered the title's meaning, Ethan bellowed that I was a "pedant". (Both men tend to become tart when challenged.) They came up with two other choices that I found obscure: "I Will Cut Hair No More Forever", and the puzzlingly verbless "Ed Crane, You So Crazy!" There matters rested, in uneasy contemplation of unsatisfactory alternatives, until the two decided to "call Steve" and ask for permission to use my clearly superior nomination. It was a no doubt bemused Mr Guttenberg who received an incoherent phone call (of which I heard the one side) that began with the brothers simultaneously, fulsomely, and at length setting out how much they "dug" his work, and ended with them asking if it would be all right if they used "The Man Who Wasn't There" as the title for a movie about a barber who really wants to be a dry cleaner, and so many people meeting violent death. Once he'd sorted out what they were after, Mr Guttenberg informed the brothers that he himself was not the proprietor of the title in question, and advised them to ring up his movie's producer, Universal Pictures. Intimidated by the mention of Universal Pictures, they handed the matter over to the phalanx of lawyers whose full-time job it is to protect the two brothers from themselves. Securing rights in the title was achieved in one short and businesslike phone call. I had my holiday; you see the film. Roderick Jaynes is a figment of the imaginations of Ethan and Joel Coen. The Man Who Wasn't There is released on October 26, and the screenplay is published by Faber & Faber. |
The Guardian |
| 03-10-01 |
DVD NEWS First of all, as I'm sure most of you are aware now, Blood Simple: Director's Cut has been released on R1 DVD. Also Momentum have decided to release an O Brother, Where Art Thou? Special Edition with two discs. Don't get too excited it's basically an amalgamation of the extras culled from the original R1 and R2 releases in the one place along with a documentary about the 'Down From The Mountain' live concert. For more details check the DVD section. |
Play 247.com |
| 01-10-01 |
O BROTHER SCREENPLAY AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD! I finally got an electronic copy of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? screenplay thanks to a You Know, For Kids reader- Karen Smith take a bow! Get on over to the O Brother Multimedia section and grab it. |
Thanks Karen Smith |
| 01-10-01 |
THE OFFICIAL THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE WEBSITE GOES LIVE! (www.themanwhowasntthere.com) You read that right! Now go there! With the film opening in, like, 4 weeks here in the UK the website is now live. At present it's pretty basic with only a nice Flash intro, the theatrical trailer (which you MUST download NOW! Stop reading this and go get it!!! You still here?), and some brief notes. I am sure it will expand in the coming weeks though. |
Official Site |
| 01-10-01 |
JOEL COEN WINS BEST DIRECTOR AWARD AT CANNES! Joel (and, by default, Ethan) won the Best Director award at Cannes 2001 for the forthcoming, The Man Who Wasn't There. The award is shared (for the first time I believe) with David Lynch for his movie Mulholland Drive. |
Cannes Film Festival website |
| 01-10-01 |
THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE RELEASE DATES! The Coen's next movie, The Man Who Wasn't There, opens in the UK on 26th October and in the US in November. As with O Brother, Where Art Thou? it opens here in Blighty first due to the English production compay, Working Title, being involved again. |
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| 15-05-01 |
HOST ISSUES!!! Damn and blast! I have had difficulty uploading files to my, usually, wonderful host. The upload feature I usually use has been "temporarily" out of order and I have patiently waiting to upload the new updates. What a time to do it too- during the Cannes Film Festival! Argh! A thousand apologies. |
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| 15-05-01 |
THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE Cannes Screenings The Coen's latest masterpiece, The Man Who Wasn't There (formerly known as The Barber Project) has now been shown at the Cannes Film Festival. It was screened on Sunday 13th in the Grand Theatre Lumiere at both 14:00 and 18:30. |
Cannes Film Festival website |
| 02-05-01 |
New movie title official!!! It's official the title of the Coen brother's next masterpiece is THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE. It is in competition at Cannes and will hopefully net Joel and Ethan their second Palmes D'Or. Also, it has a listed running time of 1h 55m. |
Cannes Film Festival website |
| 20-04-01 |
Steve Buscemi stabbed in throat! TOUGH Reservoir Dogs star Steve Buscemi has been stabbed in the throat and head in a vicious bar brawl. The actor - paranoid Mr. Pink in the hit movie - was taken to hospital with blood streaming from his wounds. He was later discharged and is recovering at home. A 21-year-old-man, Timothy Fogerty, is charged with assault with intent to kill and inflicting serious injury. Buscemi, 43, was leaving the bar in the early hours after boozing with Psycho actor Vince Vaughn and screenwriter Scott Rosenberg when violence flared. Vaughn and Fogerty got into an argument over a woman which ended in a fight. Witness Jackie Williams said: "Someone pulled out knife and Steve was slashed. He's a nice man and didn't deserve this." Before the fight, Fogerty was allegedly over-heard saying he wanted to "slash" someone. Police officer Crystal Williamson said: "From what witnesses say he provoked the fight at the club, and as they left provoked it again." Fogerty fled the scene outside the Firebelly Lounge, in Wilmigton, North Carolina when police were thrown off guard by another rumpus. He was later captured and taken away in handcuffs. After puttin up $35, 000 bail he was later freed from the county jail and will appear in court next month. Con Air star Busemi is shooting the new John Travolta movie, Domestic Disturbance, at Wilmington. |
Daily Mirror 14th April 2001 (edited) |
| 20-04-01 |
Is this the title of Coen's next movie? I was contacted by e-mail today with a tip off to a site with an article about the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. In the article it stated that the forthcoming Coen brothers movie regular visitors here will know as The Barber Project is to be titled The Man Who Wasn't There. Bizarrely the link takes you to a movie from the early 80's starring Steve Guttenberg. However, upcomingmovies.com has an old article listing the title as The Man With My Name but it then goes on to mention that this title had been dumped. Also I've got my hands on some piccies from The Barber Project, check 'em out by clicking here. |
E-mail. |
| 07-03-01 |
Momentum builds for Brother Major marketing campaign planned for latest Clooney blockbuster Momentum Pictures has revealed that it will back the forthcoming DVD release of it's Oscar nominated (Roger Deakins for Cinematography) O Brother, Where Art Thou? with a huge PR blitz. The George Clooney movie is released on the digital format on April 6th (actually the 9th!) and Momentum has recruited the talents of its new video product manager Mylene Halsall to promote the disc. Interviews with George Clooney are being planned, while a covermount with the latest issue of DVD monthly and a competition via Empire Online are scheduled. Cross promotions with Fish hair products and TV ads on Channel 4 and E4 completes the push. The DVD will carry an RRP of £19.99 and contain trailers, interactive menus, cast and crew interviews, TV spots and subtitles. |
MCV- Computer Trade Weekly, March 1st 2001. |
| 03-02-01 |
Raising Arizona DVD re-release Raising Arizona is getting re-released on R1 DVD and I have no idea why! It's due out on 6th March 2001 and the extras are listed as simply; web access (?), theatrical trialer, and TV spots. It is presented in widescreen (1.85:1). Unforunately that is all I know until my copy arrives around three days after release (I'm in the UK!). |
Play247.com |
| 03-02-01 |
Tiny To The White Sea news snippet I am a subscriber to the Yahoo Coen brothers e-mail group and a Japanese member on there, known simply as TK, posted a snippet of information regarding the shooting of the Coen brothers forthcoming movie, To The White Sea. Apparently the movie begins shooting in the Spring of 2002, lensing in Kyoto, Tokyo and Hokkaido. Err, that's it really! |
Yahoo Groups |
| 27-02-01 |
O Brother, Where Art Thou? DVD review at BBC.co.uk. Extras revealed to be; animated scene selection, cast and crew interviews, theatrical trailer, four TV spots, animated menus and subtitles. With a 2.35:1 Anamorphic transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. |
bbc.co.uk |
| 27-02-01 | "You Know, For Kids!" new design goes online! | N/A |
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