TEASER: The Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar!

 

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: New details about Hail, Caesar! — the Coen brothers’ upcoming “musical comedy” — have been revealed, thanks to their oft-collaborators: composer Carter Burwell and sound mixer Skip Lievsay. During the “Dolby Institute: The Sound of the Coens” Master Class, part of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, Dolby director Glenn Kiser asked the two to describe the early parts of their process with directors Ethan and Joel Coen. “We’re doing one now,” said Lievsay of Universal’s 2016 release, with an ensemble cast that includes George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson and Jonah Hill. It tells the comedic tale of Eddie Mannix, a fixer who worked for the Hollywood studios in the 1950s, and follows a single day in his life as he is presented with plenty of problems to fix. Burwell added, “It’s a musical comedy that takes place on a Hollywood backlot, so you pass through all these pictures that are in production there.” Since the storyline has the plot popping into different in-progress films, the musical sequences will differ, but among the ones planned is “a tap-dance water number.” But don’t expect too much lightheartedness onscreen. Burwell later explained to The Hollywood Reporter, “I wouldn’t actually call it a ‘musical comedy’ — there are movies within the movie, and those movies might have comedic music, but the movie we’re making is actually not comical. MORE