In typically opaque fashion, the Coen Brothers dropped a few hints about their latest project during an interview with director Noah Baumbach over the weekend, teasing a film that, according to The Playlist, could end up being their most heavily music-based since O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Of course, they didn’t quite come out and say that: Baumbach simply suggested that what they were working on now “has quite a bit of music in it,” and the Coens confirmed that it would, but unlike Brother, it would be mostly “all performed live, single instrument.” The only further details was that it was a project that “Noah should be doing, we shouldn’t,” while comparing its opening scene to that of Baumbach’s own Margot At The Wedding in that it simply begins in media res, with no explanation of its characters or how they got there. And the Coens also said that unlike most of their other projects, they were writing it with no specific actors in mind.
While that’s the case, it’s likely this film could be the same the Coens were said to be writing for their No Country For Old Men star Javier Bardem, which would have required him to sing. What isn’t clear is where this project fits into the Coens’ prospective projects timeline, one that already includes their remake of Gambit, their adaptation of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, the horror film they recently began writing, or older rumored, George Clooney-attached projects like Suburbicon and Hail Caesar, or even sequels to Barton Fink or The Big Lebowski (the one that would focus on John Turturro’s Jesus, not the one Tara Reid recently wrapped in the studio of her imagination). But maybe go ahead and write Untitled Coen Brothers Music Project on the wind alongside all of these others.