Back in June, the LA Times reported that Coen Brothers had said they were working on a film about the Greenwich Village folk music scene based loosely on the life of Dave van Ronk, “the Mayor of MacDougal Street,” who was said to have influenced fellow folkies Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Now Variety has confirmed the project, which will be called “Inside Llewyn Davis” (presumably a fictionalized Ronk), written and directed by the Coens, and financed by StudioCanal. No word yet on when it might start shooting, but presumably they’ll have to work around Joel and Ethan’s busy snowboarding schedule.
“Llewyn” centers around Llewyn Davis’ struggles as a folk musician during the genre’s 1960s heyday in New York City.
Pic would mark the third team-up for the quartet, all of whom collaborated on “No Country for Old Men” and “True Grit” [the Coens’ first $100 million grosser].
Normally, I’d hear about yet another navel-gazing Baby Boomer movie about Bob Dylan and his supposedly-meaningful gibberish poetry and want to puke in my dad’s bongs, but this is the Coen Brothers. They could make a film about a slam poet club DJ in the style of Entourage and I’d still be there opening night. The one thing that could keep me from seeing a Coen Brothers film? You guessed it, Danny Masterson.
Unfortunately, calling it “Llewyn Davis” all but ensures that the title will be unpronounceable in Asia and Latin America.