Despite the fact that 15 years have passed since The Big Lebowski was released, there are hardcore, super-devoted fans out there who have held out hope that Joel and Ethan Coen would one day bring the Dude back to the big screen for a sequel. At the very least, many had hoped that the Jesus Quintana character would get a spin-off film, but the Coen brothers shot down every last hope of every last Lebowski fan last week at the Cannes Film Festival when they were asked about a sequel during some press day events for their eventual Grand Prix winner, Inside Llewyn Davis.
“John Turturro, who wants it, talks to us incessantly about doing a sequel about his (bowler) character Jesus,” Ethan Coen said.
“He even has the story worked out, which he’s pitched to us a few times, but I can’t really remember it… No, I don’t see it in our future.”
Joel Coen was even firmer: “I don’t think it’s going to happen … I just don’t like sequels.” (Via the Toronto Star, H/T to the Playlist)
It would be great to see Turturro reprise the role in a spin-off, as it would help us forget his very forgettable role in the universally obnoxious Transformers films, and obviously Tara Reid would appreciate being given actual money to do anything. In fact, it is mostly Reid’s fault that people still bother the Coen brothers about this idea, ever since she managed to hiccup a few word bubbles from her mouth about all of the big movie projects she was working on in 2011.
“I have a movie coming out called The Fields. I have another one coming out that I produced with my brother, called The Irishman. And we’ll be doing American Pie 4 this year and Big Lebowski 2 this year.”
Two weeks later, Jeff Bridges was asked about the possibility of Dude 2, but he was a lot more realistic about how the Coens work:
Sorry, not that succinct. He actually said:
“It doesn’t seem like something the Coen Brothers would be interested in, but then again they’re always about surprising us, so who knows, maybe they’ll surprise us again. I’d do it again.”
