This is a sign of the times when George Clooney picks up the Directors chair for a Coen brothers script.
Clooney has really been showing what he’s made of for sometime now, ever since he directed his first movie he’s been pushing more and more for non-mainstream work as well as his own Directing career, and quite frankly he’s bloody good at it. Which is why the Coens may have given him the step up. Orginally he was offered a part in their film Suburbicon, but since then the project has been left on the back burner with no one picking it up to actually make it, now Clooney has proven his ability he’s offered to helm it, and the word is they’ve said yes.
According to Cinematical he described the plot as a dark comedy, and they point out that’s about every Coen film, so that’s no clue. Damn right. Well, I think there is plenty to get excited about on this one. Clooney directing the Coens work? Yeah, I’d like to see this.
Interesting. I observe that, hitherto, the Coens have only ever written two or three films that they haven’t also made themselves, so letting someone else do their script is relatively unusual. I wonder, though, if it’s a sign not so much that Clooney’s directorial star is rising as it is that their star is fading a bit. Given that their last couple of films were not exactly well-received, I wonder if Clooney’s attachment as director instead of Joel was one of the conditions for getting it made.