Joel Coen: Last News

J. Kim Murphy Michael Lerner, an actor who featured in films such as “Elf,” “Godzilla” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and who received an Oscar nomination in best supporting actor for his performance in Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1991 psychological comedy “Barton Fink,” died Saturday evening. He was 81 years old. Lerner’s death was confirmed by his nephew, “The Goldbergs” actor Sam Lerner, who paid tribute to his uncle through a post on Instagram Sunday afternoon. No further details regarding Lerner’s death are available at this time. “We lost a legend last night. It’s hard to put into words how brilliant my uncle Michael was, and how influential he was to me,” Lerner wrote. “His stories always inspired me and made me fall in love with acting. He was the coolest, most confident, talented guy, and the fact that he was my blood will always make me feel special. Everyone that knows him knows how insane he was— in the best way.”

Todd Gilchrist editor Joining an illustrious list of honorees that includes Clint Eastwood, Amy Poehler and Geena Davis, Josh Brolin is set to receive the 2023 Sun Valley Film Festival’s Vision Award, which recognizes entertainment veterans for the impact on the industry. Brolin began his career more than 35 years ago as one of the stars of Richard Donner’s “The Goonies,” and he’s since won acclaim for work in films as varied as Ethan and Joel Coen’s “No Country for Old Men,” Oliver Stone’s “W.,” Gus Van Sant’s “Milk,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice,” Joe and Anthony Russo’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and its sequel, “Endgame,” and more. That many of those high-profile roles came to him more than 20 years after becoming an actor isn’t something Brolin resents now — in fact quite the opposite. “That feels amazing as opposed to somebody who came out of the gate and was hugely famous and then had to uphold that for the rest of his career or her career, which never happens,” he tells Variety. Ahead of being feted at Sun Valley, Brolin reflected on the kind of career-overview recognition that comes with the Vision Award and the strange and unpredictable journey he’s taken as an actor, which includes auditions for “Almost Famous,” going from the whiff of “Jonah Hex” to the wow of “The Avengers,” and discovering “for what” as great and enriching motivation in one’s creative choices.

Grab a White Russian and head to theater as Fathom Events is bringing back The Big Lebowski to the big screen for its 25th Anniversary on April 16 (4pm and 7pm local times) and 20 (7pm).

The Cinema Audio Society has its new board of directors and officers.

Sarah Polley has won her first Academy Award.

Everything Everywhere All at Once stormed the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday night, but viewers have been left shocked after finding out what the directors' last film was.

“We’ve come a long way that two men can share an Oscar,” joked Academy Awards host Jimmy Kimmel after the commercial break following Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s win for Best Director for A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Capping off a season of accolades, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert were honored with the Academy Award for Directing at the 95th Oscars. Better known as The Daniels, the duo won for just their second feature film, “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” They also became just the third pair to win the award after Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise (“West Side Story”) and Joel and Ethan Coen (“No Country For Old Men”).

Sarah Polley won her first Oscar for her Women Talking.

"The Big Lebowski" is officially 25 years old. The movie, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, tells the story of Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, whose life gets turned upside down when he is mistaken for Jeffery Lebowski, also known as The Big Lebowski.

Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts announced today that Oscar-nominated director Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Two Popes) will become its next Marion Knott Distinguished Artist.

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor Lawrence Pitkethly, who produced and directed multiple documentary series shown on PBS and other broadcasters, died Feb. 24 at Albany Medical Center near his home in Hudson, N.Y., of cardiopulmonary arrest linked to complications from Parkinson’s. He was 79. Pitkethly is best known for “American Cinema” (1995), a 10-part, $7 million series for PBS, BBC and Canal Plus covering U.S. filmmaking that he produced, co-wrote and co-directed. It examined film genres, the rise and fall of the studio system, the creation of stars and other aspects of American movies through interviews with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Sydney Pollack, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, Joel Coen and other major players. John Lithgow served as host; Matthew Modine, Kathleen Turner and Cliff Robertson narrated.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor A pair of Oscar bellwether ceremonies took place this weekend, heralding uncertainty and unpredictability to an awards season where no one agrees on what contenders will end up taking home Academy Awards. The DGA Awards, which has historically matched up best with the eventual winner of best director, chose the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. They’re the third directing team to win in the DGA’s 75-year history (after Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for “West Side Story” and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “No Country for Old Men”). Only eight DGA winners have failed to walk away with the Academy Award in the same season, with the last instance being Sam Mendes (“1917”), who won at DGA but lost to Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”) at the 2020 Oscars.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor It’s old school versus new school for best director at the DGA Awards. Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans” is the culmination of more than 50 years of moviemaking. Then there’s the visionary whimsy of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the duo behind the sci-fi comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The veteran and the newcomers are the front-runners to win the top prize at the DGA ceremony, which take place on Feb. 18. Which picture will prevail among the guild’s 19,000 members? One camp esteems a long and storied career; the other points to a cinematic future that will look different but be just as enjoyable.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Fargo” Season 5 is rounding out its main cast with five new additions. David Rysdahl (“Oppenheimer,” “Nine Days,” “Dead Pigs”), Sam Spruell (“The North Water,” “Small Axe,” “Outlaw King”), Jessica Pohly (“SMILF,” “Goliath”), and Nick Gomez (“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” “The Walking Dead”) have all joined the fifth season of the FX anthology series. They join previously announced cast members Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Joe Keery, Lamorne Morris, and Richa Moorjani. The official description of the fifth season of the show states, “Set in 2019, when is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?”

Carson Burton Amiah Miller and Bill Heck are rounding out the cast of Searchlight Pictures’ upcoming horror thriller film “Dust.” The film stars Sarah Paulson of “American Horror Story,” Annaleigh Ashford and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in a story set in 1930s Oklahoma. It follows a woman who, during the region’s increasingly perilous dust storms, is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family. The film is directed by Will Joines and Karrie Crouse, and Crouse penned the script. “Dust” commenced principal photography this week in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Miller previously starred as Nova in the 2017 film from 20th Century Studios “War for the Planet of the Apes” alongside Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson and Steve Zahn. In 2020, she was also seen in David Oyelowo’s feature directorial debut “The Water Man.”

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the filmmaker would be going solo without his brother Joel who directed The Tragedy of Macbeth without him last year.Ethan wrote the script for the untitled film, reportedly inspired by Russ Meyer, alongside his wife Tricia Cooke in the early 2000s.A synopsis reads: “The story centred on a party girl who takes a trip from Philadelphia to Miami with her buttoned-down friend. Cruising bars ensues as does the potpourri of a severed head in a hatbox, a bitter ex-girlfriend, a mystery briefcase and an evil senator.”The film’s lead roles have now been filled.

Last year, we saw Joel Coen take the first step out on his own, typically only ever working as a director with his brother, Ethan Coen. That film, “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” was acclaimed by critics and eventually earned three Oscar nominations.

Clayton Davis It’s been eight years since we lost the incredible Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the hole in the industry still looms large.  With a career that spanned over three decades, Hoffman worked alongside several masters both in front and behind the camera. The New York-born actor was a staple of some of Paul Thomas Anderson’s most fascinating works.

Naman Ramachandran A wealth of film and TV titles are available at launch on streamer Studiocanal Presents, which is now available as an Amazon Prime Video channel in the U.K.Some 300 films and series from Studiocanal’s catalogue are available at launch, including Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now: Final Cut” in 4K; Brian Helgeland’s “Legend”; Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis”; a digitally restored version of Carol Reed’s “The Third Man”; Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here,” zombie horror “Train to Busan” and Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood.”Also available are Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell To Earth” and Sidney Lumet’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” award-winners “Manchester by the Sea” and “Room,” seminal titles like Luis Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour” and Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” and modern British classics “Submarine” and “Four Lions.” Other recent additions include Sharon Stone classic “Basic Instinct” and John Carpenter’s “Escape From New York.” Studiocanal Presents also offers TV series showcasing the best of Studiocanal and Canal+’s own TV productions, including “Hannibal,” “Spiral” and “All the Way Up,” which broke streaming records upon its launch on Canal+ in France.A variety of new titles will launch on the channel every month, many of which can’t be streamed anywhere else in the U.K. New titles arriving include “Possessions,” “Animal Kingdom” and “The Guard.” After a seven-day free trial the service costs £4.99 ($6) a month.

On-set still photographer Lorey Sebastian, who worked on such movies as Crash, Twilight, Wild Hogs, Blow, St. Elmo’s Fire, I Am Sam, In the Valley of Elah and A Million Ways to Die in the West died May 9 in New Mexico after a brief illness. She was 78.