One of the most side-splittingly funny parts of the Coen Brothers’ iconic comedy The Big Lebowski is undoubtedly “pederast” bowler Jesus Quintana (John Turturro), who provided many of the film’s best lines (“Nobody fucks with the Jesus!). Given the character’s now-legendary status, perhaps it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Turturro is interested in reprising the role.
However, the Coen Brothers themselves haven’t been too enthusiastic about the idea. Last year, Ethan Coen acknowledged that Turturro wants the spinoff but distanced himself from it, stating:
“John Turturro, who wants it, talks to us incessantly about doing a sequel about his (bowler) character Jesus. He even has the story worked out, which he’s pitched to us a few times, but I can’t really remember it…No, I don’t see it in our future.”
That pretty harsh shut-down is not deterring Turturro, though. At the Taormina Film Festival last weekend, the actor said that he wants to shoot the Jesus-centric Big Lebowski spinoff next year, adding:
“If I can get the permission I need, I’d like to return to that role.”
It’s still unclear exactly where the spinoff would take Jesus, though a title that was floated around the interwebs a while back was 100 Minutes of Jesus. I’m not too hot on the idea of the character getting his own movie – in The Big Lebowski, I can’t imagine that Jesus would have been nearly as funny as he was had he dominated the screen. Less was really more as far as the character was concerned in that movie.
Of course, actors wanting to reprise their roles as supporting characters in films devoted to them is nothing new. Whether Turturro actually has a good story to back up his vocal interest in reprising the role has yet to be seen – and unless the Coens change their tune, it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see it anyway.
