Every day it seems more and more likely that the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men will win the prestigious Best Film award at this year’s Oscars. It’ll mark a departure for the ceremony in actually rewarding a good film for once. I may have not seen it the film yet (13 days left!), but having read the book, I have no doubt that Joel and Ethan have pulled off a perfect adaptation of an excellent story. But what’s lined up for the future?

The Coen Brothers have had a reputation of making films under-budget, but a lot of their films do not sell exceptionally well. Fargo may have been a huge success, but The Big Lebowski, despite being a cult classic, did not rake in the dollars. But, it seems that No Country will be their most successful film in the US, soon to pass out O Brother Where Art Thou’s $45 million. It now seems that the brothers are back on top again, and have the opportunity to make whatever they want. Several years ago, they were excited about making a film about a US fighter pilot shot down over Japan during World War II, and having to somehow escape. The film would have no dialogue from its protagonist. Despite Brad Pitt expressing interest, the Coens could never raise the funding.

Recently, the Coens have said that they have written a Western film. According to Cinema Blend, Joel has said of it: “We’ve written a western with a lot of violence in it. There’s scalping and hanging … it’s good. Indians torturing people with ants, cutting their eyelids off.” Ethan chimed in: “It’s a proper western, a real western, set in the 1870s. It’s got a scene that no one will ever forget because of one particular chicken.” Whatever that means.

This sounds like an exciting prospect. The recent The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has shown that there’s still life in the Western yet, and this Coen Brothers project could be an intriguing balance between Leone’s great visual style and the gritty revisionist Westerns of the 70’s.

However, IMDB have the brothers listed as making two other films first. Burn After Reading is a spy comedy starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and Hail Caesar is another comedy, this one centred on a 1920’s Shakespearian theatre group. Personally, neither of these titles sound very good on paper. I fear they’re of the same comedy-light that made Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers so unendurably dull. Hail Caesar sounds like Kenneth Williams should star! Let’s all hope that financiers will be desperate to recreate the popularity of No Country, and raise funds to produce the violent Western as soon as possible.

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