During his appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival, composer Carter Burwell – who has a longstanding working partnership with Joel and Ethan Coen – has shared a handful of new details for the siblings’ latest picture, Hollywood drama Hail, Caesar!
Specifically, Burwell discussed the tone of the upcoming movie and how it is “rather serious” despite being described as a musical comedy hitherto. First picked up by The Hollywood Reporter, here’s what the composer had to say on the matter.
“It’s a musical comedy that takes place on a Hollywood backlot, so you pass through all these pictures that are in production there. I wouldn’t actually call it a ‘musical comedy’ — there are movies within the movie, and those movies might have comedic music, but the movie we’re making is actually not comical,” he elaborated. “I haven’t written the music yet, but I’m quite certain it’s actually going to be quite the opposite. It’s going to be rather serious, and it’s about faith. It’s not about the music.”
In case you’re not up to speed, the Coens’ latest takes place during the fabled Golden Age of Hollywood, where one studio fixer – a person hired by a production to cater to their often diva-esque stars – has to put out fires all over Tinseltown. As Burwell alluded to, it appears as though Hail, Caesar! will be meta by nature, encompassing real movies into the screenplay to act as a backdrop. It is set in Hollywood, after all.
With the prestigious talent of Joel and Ethan Coen behind the lens, Hail, Caesar! has already attracted quite the star-studded ensemble, including Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Lambert and Josh Brolin as the aforementioned fixer. It’s slated to arrive in theaters on February 5, 2016.