Universal Pictures has released the first TV spot for Joel and Ethan Coen's anticipated Hail Caesar!, which recently was announced as the big opener at this year's Berlin Film Festival. Sadly, there's not much in the way of new footage here, nor are there any new zippy, witty lines which have become axioms of the Coen brothers universe, but this being the new Coens joint, there isn't much added excitement needed for the upcoming movie about making movies, starring Josh Brolin as a studio exec who must hunt down his kidnapped star, played by George Clooney.
Indeed, any Coen brothers movie is worth getting excited about, but Hail Caesar is an especially big fish. Not only has this project been rumored to be on their docket since around when A Serious Man was being produced, but it's the directing duo's official follow-up to Inside Llewyn Davis, arguably the best film the writing-directing team have produced thus far, even against heavy competition like The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and Blood Simple. Their latest doesn't look to have the meditative, mordant tone of Inside Llewyn Davis, but it certainly looks more reflective and well-considered than their zanier, less successful entries, such as Intolerable Cruelty and their mildly entertaining remake of The Ladykillers. Here, they seem to be taking on their own business with a slightly less cynical, more ebullient tone than the one they showed in Barton Fink, and seem to be confronting the positives and negatives of Hollywood classicism. Personally, I can't wait. Check out the TV spot right below.
Here's the official synopsis for Hail Caesar!:
Four-time Oscar®–winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men, True Grit,Fargo) write and direct HAIL, CAESAR!, an all-star comedy set during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson and Jonah Hill, HAIL, CAESAR! follows a single day in the life of a studio fixer who is presented with plenty of problems to fix. The comedy is produced by the Coen brothers under their Mike Zoss Productions banner, with Working Title Films and Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan.
