When you think of the Coen brothers’ films there are ones that immediately leap to mind: The Big Lebowski; Fargo; No Country for Old Men. More recently, the Coen brothers have found success with directing Inside Llewyn Davis and writing the screenplay for Oscar-contender Bridge of Spies.
While their body of work continues to expand, fans of the duo’s work still hold The Big Lebowski as one of their favourites. Unfortunately, while we may never see a sequel for that, we may yet see one for another Coen brothers hit: Barton Fink.
Barton Fink was released in 1991 to critical and commercial acclaim. The comedic story about a young New York playwright hired to write scripts for Hollywood was an award-magnet, scooping up the Palme d’Or, Best Director and Best Actor awards at Cannes and then being nominated for 3 Oscars. Now the brothers Coen have announced that they have considered the idea of a Barton Fink sequel:
“People have been asking about a sequel to The Big Lebowski for years, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. We have talked about doing a sequel to Barton Fink, just really in response to the enormous popular demand for one, but it would be old Fink. We don’t want to do it until Turturro is old enough. He’s almost there, he just needs a few more years.”
The star of the first Barton Fink, John Turturro, is 58 years-old and the brother’s indicated in the same interview with Empire that he would need to be 60. There’s no denying it would be interesting for the brothers to revisit this particular character, particularly in the situation they suggested we might find Fink in:
“It’d be [set during] the Summer of Love in San Francisco [and he’s] teaching at Berkeley or something. He’s an old leftie but an ideologue who’s become old and cynical and embittered.”
The brothers have just released their latest picture, Hail, Caesar! in the U.S. to shocking box office failure. However all is not lost as Barton Fink was also a bomb and now people want a sequel. There is hope after all. Hail, Caesar! will be released in the U.K. March 4 and you can see the trailer below.
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