By rights, Ethan and Joel Coen should not be the massively successful filmmakers they are. I’m not impugning their talent, skill or artistry with that statement; it's more that their movies are very, very strange. Weird by any standard, which makes it occasionally shocking to sit back and look at their success in popular culture.

Their movies, especially those made in the past ten years, are sold as mainstream motion pictures when they their tone and content should really sentence them to a boutique indie theater existence. When people gravitate towards entertainment that is easy to understand and comfortable to watch, how is it that guys who make something as densely surreal as “Barton Fink” or as willfully grim and ambiguous as “No Country For Old Men” are two of America’s favorite moviemakers? Read more...

Let's get right to it, shall we?

-- It's not exactly movies-related, but there's a new poster up for J.J. Abrams' hit series "Fringe." Both myself and MTV Multiplayer editor Russ Frushtick are fans of the show, and we were just joking at how uninspiring the poster is. I have to ask though... what the hell is Walter Bishop holding in his hand there? (Sci Fi Wire)

-- The first trailer for the Coen Brothers' next movie, "A Serious Man," has hit the Internet. I expect it to be glorious (the movie that is). (Apple)

-- "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" director Jay Russell will helm "Duncan" for Ben Kingsley's production company, SBK Pictures. It's about a grown woman reconnecting with a stuffed animal from her childhood. Kingsley will voice the toy. Sounds family-friendly to me! (The Hollywood Reporter) Read more...

It's hardly uncommon for the American film industry to remake popular foreign films. Take Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning "The Departed," based on the Hong Kong-spawned "Infernal Affairs" series. How often does it work the other way around though? Before you ask, yes, I am aware of "Indian Thriller."

Such a reverse remake is in the works via Sony Pictures Classics, which will distribute filmmaker Zhang Yimou's planned remake of "Blood Simple," the classic thriller that marked Joel and Ethan Coen's first co-directorial endeavor. The distribution deal means that the still untitled "Blood Simple" remake will see release in North America, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. Read more...

Reading the IMDB message boards for the Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Gambit,” a heist movie remake about two criminals out to steal a priceless antiquity, is just about the funniest thing imaginable, since every other poster is convinced the movie is about the “X-Men” character Remy LeBeau. It’s actually so egregiously wrong that it almost has to be parody right?

But how’s this for a laugh: An honest to goodness Marvel spin-off might actually one day make it to the big-screen before the Coen Brother’s film, given that, well, nobody’s actually MAKING “Gambit,” supposedly attached star Colin Firth revealed.

“No! It’s a complete lie. It’s been on IMDB and just sitting there,” Firth said of his rumored involvement. “The Coen brothers have written an absolutely brilliant script.”
Read more...

There's a lot to enjoy in the Coen brother's deliciously diabolical new comedy, "Burn After Reading," but probably my favorite performance is the slow (and sometimes fast) burn of John Malkovich. As I've been saying since I saw it, any movie that ends with a scene involving Malkovich in a bathrobe with a gun in one hand and a drink in the other, is a movie I'm going to like. Malkovich tangles with Brad Pitt through much of the film, including one memorable squabble that ends with a punch to the face of the sometime sexiest man alive. Watch as Malkovich talks about the fears associated with said punch below.

- Russell Crowe looking to star as comedian Bill Hicks in new biopic. (Sydney Morning Herald)

- Tom Cruise and Sam Raimi to team up for "Sleeper," the story of an undercover operative impervious to pain. (MTV Splash Page by way of THR)

- Michael Stuhlbarg and Richard Kind get "Serious" as leads in new Coen Brothers' film. (Vanity Fair)

- Jimmy Fallon to "Whip It" for Drew Barrymore. Funny man cast in roller derby comedy as "Hot Tub Johnny." (/film)

- Roger Ebert on why 3D isn't the future of cinema. (Roger Ebert)