The Coen brothers will direct the film about a Hollywood fixer in the 1950s who works to keep a studio's stars in line.
- June 10, 2014
AceShowbiz -
Coen Brothers' "Hail Caesar" has moved forward significantly. Universal Pictures has come on board to distribute at the same time it was announced that Josh Brolin and George Clooney are to star opposite each other in the comedy.
Joel and Ethan Coen will produce along with Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan for Working Title Films, making this the brothers' eighth collaboration with the studio. The siblings will also direct. Brolin has worked with them in "No Country for Old Men" and "True Grit" while Clooney had a number of films with them including "Burn After Reading" and "Intolerable Cruelty".
"Hail Caesar" follows a man named Eddie Mannix who sounds a lot like the Fred Otash of his day - the famed 1950s private investigator who worked for Confidential magazine and was the muckraker of the time using wiretaps to spy on movie stars and gather dirt. Otash was a former lifeguard who became a cop, lost his job as a cop and became a private eye who wiretapped.
It is yet clear whether the Eddie Mannix in the script is based on the man of the same who was a MGM vice president.
