The Coen Brothers' love making George Clooney look like a schmuck, and it appears they might be doing it again in the near future.  During a recent interview with Thompson on Hollywood, Anne Thompson asked about their comedy Hail Caesar, which they had talked about back in 2004.  According to The Playlist, the film is set to star George Clooney "as a 1920s matinee film idol who takes on Ancient Rome epic" and at one point Tim Blake Nelson was also being considered for the cast.  Joel Coen told Thompson they've been working on Hail Caesar, and "there's a good chance that would be next"; Ethan Coen added that the film is "about the movie business and life and religion and faith. Faith and the movie business".

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The Coens' statement about Hail Caesar jives with their recent comment about making "a sandal movie".  My assumption was that they were doing a straight sandal movie, which in retrospect was a dumb assumption, although I hadn't heard of Hail Caesar until now.  The film is supposed to be the conclusion of their "Numbskull Trilogy", which stars Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty.  I guess Burn After Reading doesn't count since Clooney plays a supporting role.

If this is their next project, I hope we won't have a three-year wait like we did between True Grit and Inside Llewyn Davis.  It's possible Clooney could be available since he'll likely be done working on Monuments Men sometime in January (if not sooner), and he's probably wrapped filming on Brad Bird's Tomorrowland.