Though their latest film, ’60s-set musical drama Inside Llewyn Davis, won’t hit screens in the US until December 6th, Joel and Ethan Coen recently let slip that they are already hard at work writing a script that could become their next project.
Speaking at Telluride, where Inside Llewyn Davis has continued to build the Oscar buzz that has surrounded it since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Joel Coen revealed that the sibling directors’ planned next project will likely continue their exploration of music’s importance to culture, which began with 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? and went in another direction with this year’s Inside Llewyn Davis:
You always hesitate to mention these things when you are in the middle of them, because sometimes they just go in a drawer and never surface again and then people ask ‘what ever happened to that thing’ for the next 20 years. We are writing something right now where the main character is an opera singer.
While those two aforementioned previous efforts by the directing duo focused on different periods of folk music, it sounds like this new project may examine the world of opera.
Of course, the Coen Brothers’ projects are often reworked extensively from the ideas that inspired them to finished screenplays, so the part of the opera singer might end up excised entirely from the project before long. Additionally, this film could actually be a dark comedy or drama (more akin to Fargo than O Brother, Where Art Thou?) that includes an opera singer but is more focused on the character’s misadventures than his/her profession. At this point, everything is purely speculation, but that’s half the fun, in my opinion.
However, the idea of the talented directors taking on a more theatrical musical scene is certainly tantalizing, and the Coens have shown an affinity for musically-oriented films in the past, which gives credence to the idea that their next project could explore the culture of opera.
Would you be more excited to see a movie by the Coen Brothers about the world of opera, or does a film simply featuring an opera singer as a protagonist sound like a better idea to you? Are you excited for Inside Llewyn Davis? Let us know in the comments!
