Coen Brothers’ Script May Finally See Light of Day

By our guest blogger, Tim Strain

Production of Joel and Ethan Coen’s screenplay, “Gambit,” may finally be moving forward. This is a unique development because the Coens apparently are not attached to direct. This would be the first time since the 1985 Sam Raimi film “Crimewaves” that they would not direct and/or produce their own screenplay.

Instead, Castle Rock Entertainment and producer Mike Lobell (“Striptease,” “Tears of the Sun”) is shopping the script around Hollywood, seeking a new director, according to a trade article in Variety.

The script has been in circulation in Hollywood for over a decade. It has gone into various stages of pre-production three times, according to the Variety piece, but has never found itself a home or a director ready to tackle the piece. The script is a remake of the 1966 British thriller starring Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.

The IMDB official plot synopsis reads:

“Harry Dean's plan to steal a painting from one of the world's richest men is missing one final component--the participation of a beautiful woman to act as his gambit. In Nicole, he meets someone who appears to be the perfect candidate, but Harry himself becomes enraptured with her, causing his plan to take a series of wrong turns.”

While the Coens aren't directing, they are staying busy nonetheless.  They have released three films--“A Serious Man,” “Burn After Reading” and the Best Picture-winning “No Country for Old Men”--in the past three years, and have already begun production on their remake of the 1969 John Wayne western, “True Grit,” starring Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin.  As if this weren't enough, they also  have three additional projects in the can: “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” “Hail Caesar,” and “Suburbicon.”