Coen Brothers Could Next Make 'Hail Caesar' With George Clooney

We're back to the question of what the Joel and Ethan Coen will do to follow the stellar Inside Llewyn Davis. We've recently heard that there could be scripts that take place in the world of opera, and possibly in ancient Rome. The latter led people to think of a script called Hail Caesar that had been talked up many years ago, meant to star George Clooney. The actor called it a capper to their loose "idiot trilogy," the first two films being O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty.

Turns out that Hail Caesar script is still in play, and could even be next. But it isn't the Roman movie — or it might not be, anyway. The Coens talk, below. 

Anne Thompson asked about the Hail Caesar script, and got the following response:

Joel: We've been working on that one.

Ethan: It's about the movie business and life and religion and faith. Faith and the movie business. It's still George.Joel: There's a good chance that would be next.

And that's it. But it's a slight bit more than we've known. In 2005, when the project was first talked up, the plot description was that it would "follow a troupe of theater actors in the 1920's putting on a play about ancient Rome." That sounds like it has changed a bit, to be about movies rather than theater (but it could feature the theater troupe intersecting with the movie biz) and that the Roman angle isn't primary.

Still, it's the Coens, so it's always difficult to tell early on. Could this be the "sandal" movie they recently talked/joked about? Possibly. When Inside Llewyn Davis was announced and briefly described early on, did anyone think it would be quite the movie we got? Probably not. So we'll wait (impatiently) and see.