Coens to ‘Burn’ Venice
Burn After Reading, the new film from multiple Academy Award winning cinematic geniuses Joel and Ethan Coen, is set to open the 65th Venice Fim Festival on August 27.
The Brothers’ latest is a dark comedy that stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich. LiC is in full Coen Lockdown mode so that’s all we want to know about it until it opens in the US on September 12. It makes its UK debut a week earlier.
The release date has already been spun to indicate an Oscar capitulation so I’m sure the same nattering nabobs will have something to say about it opening Venice instead of Toronto and blah blah blah.
The best news is that fans will only have to avoid spoilers for two weeks after the film splashes down in Venice. Last year was murder with No Country for Old Men turning up at Cannes but not playing for the public until November.
Source: Variety
Filed under: Upcoming
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This is fine by me. Just glad to see they’ve got a new one coming. The naybobs can suck it.
I love when you institute Lockdown mode, Craig.
I keep forgetting John Malkovich is in this film. It’s like the icing on a cake. What a cast. Venice seemed like the way to go with this film.
Brad Pitt is officially on a roll: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Burn After Reading, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Tree of Life… Maybe even the role of John Galt in Atlas Shrugged (which might be a disaster)…
I think among all of the big American leading men, his upcoming list of credits is by far the most intriguing right now.
Agreed on Brad Pitt, Alexander. I just watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford again yesterday. I don’t always like him in movies, but he’s perfectly cast in TAOJJ. I’m keeping an eye on him these days - hopefully the Academy will get over their hate of Brangelina and welcome them back into the fold.
So looking forward to Burn After Reading. Yeah, Craig, it was hell last year waiting for No Country for Old Men. People were talking about it for half the year before I finally got to see it.
You know, all this reminds me of a few years ago, when another high-profile movie featuring a well-known cast and directed by a major auteur decided to the fall forego festivals entirely. The so-called nattering nabobs smelled trouble. If the film was so good and such a would-be awards magnet, why would they be so reluctant to try it out on a festival audience? Instead, it opened wide a month after Toronto.
The movie? THE DEPARTED.
Now, I’m not saying that BURN AFTER READING is in the same boat as Scorsese’s movie. The Coens have always gone the festival route with their movies. But what I am saying is that the nattering nabobs can suck it. Some movies, it just doesn’t matter where they open. With both Scorsese and the Coens, their reps are strong enough that the movie would get attention regardless of where it premieres.
Hey, while we’re at it we should start attempting to project box office receipts for opening weekend and discussing how if this movie opens on X number of screens it can’t possibly be an awards grabber.
The nabobs are annoying.
Let’s not forget that Richard Jenkins is also in this movie, just in case anyone needed more convincing.
Thanks for stopping by Alynch.
I literally didn’t know about Jenkins until I was preparing this post this morning, such is the extent of my Coen blackout. Hopefully he’s got a bigger part than his small but memorable turn in The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Same here. I didn’t learn about Jenkins being in Burn After Reading until this morning. It just gets better and better.
I’m glad you’ve stopped by, alynch. Your posts at H-E, often antagonistic towards Wells, are a highlight of that place whenever I dare to look at what is happening over there.
Jenkins is great. I’ve liked him for years, loved him since he played Late Nate in Six Feet Under.
I’m happily anticipating Burn without any Oscar expectations for it.
And I join the chorus of the glad in celebrating that we won’t have to wait six months to see it (well, I still might here in the boondocks, but I have hope) like we did with No Country. On the other hand, No Country was such a strong movie it didn’t disappoint even after close to a year of impossible expectations after the initial buzz started seeping out.
Oh, yesterday when I saw the trailer for the Ben Stiller/DowneyJr comedy Tropic Thunder, I did a double take at the credits. It looked like it had a screenplay credit for Ethan Coen. Then I looked it up on IMDB and it was Etan Cohen.
Tricky.
If you like Jenkins Jennybee, you’ll want to catch The Visitor. As you can see from the Watercooler, it has its fans and detractors, but I don’t think anyone denies Jenkins was great in it.
That damn Etan Cohen has been riding on Ethan’s coattails for long enough!
I knew there was a reason why Tropic Thunder looked/sounded like more than the typical dumb Hollywood comedy.
That’s it, I’m marking that one down to see, no questions asked.
There’s a Joel who spells his last name C-O-H-E-N who wrote such vomit as Evan Almighty, Daddy Day Camp and the Garfield movies…a little piece of me dies every time I see that name attached to that junk.
Ahaha, how do we not know that these are really aliases for the Coens ala Roderick Jaynes?
Just kidding.
here’s hoping they don’t get together to make a movie
I heard that Etan and Joel Cohen wrote a forgettable script called Burn Before Reading.
Aahahahah. They came up with the title afterwards.