My wife and I greatly loved this very funny movie. However, it's true the audience was mostly over 40 watching this movie. For myself, people were like this when I was little and so the movie was very funny, especially Channing Tatum getting on a Russian Submarine and dropping the money as he catches his dog. This is a crazy movie about the crazy times in the movie business then. They are still crazy now just crazy in a completely different way. Then we came home and watched "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" made by Woody Allen in 2001 with Helen Hunt, Dan Ackroyd and Charliz Theron which I believe is a 1940 period piece set in New York. Great Stuff!!
Hail, Caesar! is a 2016 American comedy film written, produced, edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Channing Tatum. The film is a fictional story that follows the real-life "fixer" Eddie Mannix (Brolin) working in the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanishes during filming.
First revealed in 2004, the film was originally set to take place in the 1920s and follow actors performing a play about ancient Rome. The Coens shelved the idea until late 2013, when they stated it was in development. Principal photography began in November 2014 in Los Angeles, California. The film premiered in Los Angeles on February 1, 2016, opened wide February 5, 2016, and will open the 66th Berlin International Film Festival on February 11.
Hail, Caesar! received generally positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised its casting.
The studio's major production is Hail, Caesar!, an epic set in ancient Rome and starring Baird Whitlock (Clooney). During a shoot, Whitlock drinks from a goblet of wine drugged by an extra; he passes out behind the soundstage and is abducted. A ransom note soon arrives, written by a group calling itself "The Future" and demanding $100,000, which Mannix arranges to have paid. Whitlock awakens in a beach house and finds his way into a meeting of The Future, a Communist cell. The members explain their doctrine to him, and he begins to sympathize with their cause.
Meanwhile, singing Western film star Hobie Doyle (Ehrenreich) is cast in a period drama helmed by director Laurence Laurentz (Fiennes), as an attempt to broaden his appeal. Doyle's performance is hopelessly inept, but Mannix insists that he stay with the production and try to learn from Laurentz. While attending the premiere of one of his own Westerns with starlet Carlotta Valdez, Doyle recognizes the briefcase containing the ransom money, having previously seen it on Mannix's desk. It is being carried by Burt Gurney (Tatum), star of a sailor comedy; Doyle follows him to the beach house, but finds only Whitlock waiting for him there. The rest of The Future's members have rowed Gurney offshore so he can rendezvous with a Soviet submarine and turn over the money. As he boards, his dog jumps into his arms, causing him to drop the briefcase so that it sinks into the ocean. Doyle takes Whitlock back to the studio as the police arrive to arrest the group.
Whitlock tries to explain his newfound Communist leanings to Mannix, who cuts him off sharply and orders him to finish his role in Hail, Caesar! Thora threatens to publish a column revealing that Whitlock got his first major film role by having sex with Laurentz, citing Gurney as her source. However, Mannix persuades her not to run the story, since Gurney is a Communist and her own reputation would suffer by association. DeeAnna marries Joseph Silverman (Hill), a surety agent who had agreed to take her baby into foster care. Mannix decides to reject the Lockheed offer and continue working at Capitol.
Writing in the Washington Post, Kristen Page-Kirby noted that the nostalgia for the Hollywood golden age is heavily filtered by time. "It’s easy to look back at any part of the past and say, 'Yeah, that’s how it should be today.' Hail, Caesar! uses the uniformly terrible fake movies within it to show that while we all remember 1946 for stuff like The Yearling and Notorious, it also gave us Tarzan and the Leopard Woman."[3]
The project was mentioned in a December 2013 interview about Inside Llewyn Davis. Joel Coen revealed that they were "working on" Hail, Caesar!, and that it would likely be their next project.[32] The Coens reconfirmed the film's development in May 2014, with the plot now focused on a "fixer" working in the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s.[29][33]
Hail, Caesar! was the first movie that Deakins shot with film since True Grit in 2010. The Coens had themselves said that their previous movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, would probably be their last use of the medium.[41] But with Hail, Caesar!''s Hollywood themed content making film an obvious choice, Deakins agreed to give it one more try. ("I don’t mind," he recalled saying, "I’ll shoot it on a cell phone if you like.") Ultimately, though, film proved a limited palette due to the narrowing choices of stocks and processing options in the wake of digital cinematography. He didn't recall encountering those kinds of problems on earlier projects. "But it makes me nervous now. I don’t want to do that again, frankly. I don’t think the infrastructure’s there."[42]
Locations used for scenes beyond Capital Pictures included the Appian Way scenes, which were shot at the Big Sky Movie Ranch in Simi Valley, and the western sequence, which was filmed at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. The well of Jehoshaphat sequence was shot at Bronson Canyon, formerly a quarry, in Griffith Park. The nightclub interiors, scene of Carlotta and Hobie's date, was shot at the Hollywood Palladium, with the exterior at the Fonda Theatre. Carlotta's house exterior was filmed at a 1927 home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles; this was also the locale for The Good Luck Bar, which stood in for the Imperial Gardens Chinese restaurant. The movie premiere was shot in the Los Angeles Theatre, selected for its spacious lobby.[43][2]
The soundtrack for the film, titled Hail Caesar!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, features the original score by Carter Burwell, and an original song performed by Channing Tatum.[44] The soundtrack was released via digital download and physical formats on February 5, 2016, by Back Lot Music.[44][45]
Carter Burwell composed the score for the film, and wrote original songs along with Henry Krieger and Willie Reale.[46][47]
Richard Roeper gave the film four out of four stars, calling the film one of his favorite movies ever made about making movies.[60] IGN gave the film 7.7/10, saying, "Hail, Caesar! may not be one of the Coen Brothers' finest efforts -- and it might not engage viewers beyond Los Angeles or those who truly understand or work in the film industry -- but it's nevertheless a fun, charming, and oft-hilarious take on Hollywood's Golden Age."[61] In a review for The Village Voice, Melissa Anderson praised the performances, but found that the tone and humor of the film "too often goes flat."[62]
John Anderson of the Wall Street Journal described the film as being "a dispiritingly vitriolic, only sporadically funny satire of ’50s Hollywood".[63]
The film received less enthusiastic reviews from audiences. On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale. 52% of the opening day audience were males while 84% were over 25, with both demographics giving the film a "D+" grade, while those over 50 years old gave the film a "D-".[57] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 48% from audiences.[58]
"Hail, Caesar! (2016)". Box Office Mojo. (Amazon.com). Retrieved February 7, 2016.
"HAIL, CAESAR! Production Information" (PDF). Universal Studios. pp. 3, 16–20.
Page-Kirby, Kristen (2016-02-05). "‘Hail, Caesar!’ brings back Hollywood’s Golden Age, both good and bad". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
Kit, Borys (July 9, 2014). "Jonah Hill Joining Channing Tatum, George Clooney in Coen Brothers' 'Hail, Caesar!'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Verrier, Richard (November 26, 2014). "Coen brothers' 'Hail, Caesar!' is helping boost L.A. film production". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
Joshua Rothkopf (3 February 2016). "Hail, Caesar! [review]". Time Out New York. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
Kroll, Justin (September 2, 2014). "Alden Ehrenreich Joins Cast of Coen Brothers' 'Hail Caesar!' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
Barraclough, Leo (November 7, 2014). "Coen Brothers' 'Hail, Caesar!' to Start Shooting Monday". Variety. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
Sneider, Jeff (July 9, 2014). "Jonah Hill in Talks to Reteam With Channing Tatum on Coen Brothers’ ‘Hail, Caesar!’ (Exclusive)". The Wrap. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Kroll, Justin (July 9, 2014). "Scarlett Johansson in Talks for Coen Brothers' 'Hail Caesar!' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Stern, Marlow (September 3, 2014). "Frances McDormand on 'Olive Kitteridge,' Dropping LSD, and Her Beef With FX's 'Fargo'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
Davis, Edward (July 9, 2014). "'Hail Caesar!' Scarlett Johansson & Jonah Hill Join The New Coen Brothers Film". Indiewire. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Pill can be seen in the Coen brothers’ ensemble film “Hail, Caesar!
Actriz Verónica Osorio sobre su papel en la película “Hail, Caesar!”
Carly Mallenbaum (2 February 2016). "'Hail, Caesar!': 5 things we learned at the premiere". USA Today.
Andreeva, Nellie (November 25, 2014). "David Dobkin To Direct 'Badlands' AMC Series; Emily Beecham, Sarah Bolger Cast". Deadline. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
Classic Hollywood Comes to Life in Hail, Caesar!
Porreca, Brian (February 2, 2016). "Hail, Caesar!' World Premiere: George Clooney Wants a Hollywood Fixer". TheHollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
Kit, Borys (October 17, 2014). "Coen Brothers' 'Hail, Caesar!' Adds Four (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
Kit, Borys (November 14, 2014). "Christopher Lambert joins Coen Brothers' 'Hail, Caesar!' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
Lofaro, Joe (November 23, 2014). "Star Trek doctor Robert Picardo visits Ottawa Pop Expo". Metro International. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
Coen brothers exorcise their pent-up silliness with 'Hail, Caesar!'
Hail, Caesar!' Offers Satirical Look at 1950s Hollywood
"Official Dolph Lundgren Website: News". dolphlundgren.com. February 11, 2015. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
McKittrick, Christopher (2015-05-06). ""It’s a lonely job, you know?" Dolph Lundgren on Screenwriting". Creative Screenwriting. Retrieved 2015-05-10.
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (4 February 2016). "The Coens swipe at religion, counterculture, and Hollywood in Hail, Caesar!". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
Desowitz, Bill (November 21, 2014). "How the 'Interstellar' Crafts Team Experiments with Sight and Sound". Indiewire. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
Toro, Gabe (July 21, 2011). "As 'The Dark Tower' Crumbles, Here Are 10 Dead Projects In Search Of Resurrection". Indiewire. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Jagernauth, Kevin (May 6, 2014). "The Coen Brothers' Next Film Will Be 'Hail Caesar,' New Plot Details Revealed". Indiewire. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
Schmidlin, Charlie (December 12, 2013). "Coens Say There’s "A Good Chance" That ‘Hail Caesar’ With George Clooney Will Be Next". Indiewire. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Ordona, Michael (February 10, 2008). "The road less traveled leads to 'No Country'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Thompson, Anne (December 11, 2013). "'Inside Llewyn Davis' Secrets and a New Coens Movie Revealed: Q & A (VIDEO)". Indiewire. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Busch, Anita (May 16, 2014). "Coen Brothers’ Next Film: ‘Hail Caesar,’ A Fixer In 1950s Hollywood". Deadline. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
Kroll, Justin (June 9, 2014). "Josh Brolin to Co-Star With George Clooney in Coen Brothers' 'Hail Caesar!'". Variety. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
"Channing Tatum Joining George Clooney in 'Hail Caesar'". Hitfix. Hulu. June 24, 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
Deakins, Roger (October 10, 2014). "Bond 24". Roger Deakins. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
"Wednesday,
Dec. 3 Filming Locations for Forever, Madam Secretary, Sleepy Hollow,
Empire, House of Lies, NCIS L.A., Hail Caesar!, Paper Towns, &
more!". onlocationvacations.com. December 3, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
Kay, Yana (November 15, 2014). "Josh Brolin looks dashing in a suit on set of new movie Hail, Caesar! with co-star Kate Chadwick". The Daily Mail. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
Evry, Max (December 4, 2014). "First Look at George Clooney in Hail, Caesar!". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
"Channing Tatum Goes Blond for Hail Caesar!". People. December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
Lussier, Germain. "The Coen Brothers Are Going Digital - /Film". /Film. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
Tapley, Kristopher (January 26, 2016). "Roger Deakins on 'Hail, Caesar!,' Old Hollywood and Going Back to Celluloid". Variety. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
Cowan, Jared (February 4, 2016). "Your Complete Guide to the L.A. Filming Locations of Hail, Caesar!". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
"Hail Ceaser, Soundtrack Details". FilmMusicReporter.com. January 7, 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
"Back Lot Music to release Hail Ceaser Soundtrack". FilmMusicReporter.com. December 23, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
Lee, Ashley (April 2, 2015). "New Plot Details From Coen Brothers' 'Hail, Caesar!' Revealed". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
"Odds & Ends: Bombshell Set for Early Arrival, Hollywood Sings for Krieger & Reale & More". Broadway.com. January 13, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
"The Hail, Caesar! Trailer Has Arrived!". ComingSoon.net. October 9, 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
Han, Angie (December 29, 2015). "The Cohen Brothers Hail Ceaser Drops a New Poster and a New TV Spot". SlashFilm.com. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
Evry (January 7, 2016). "Hail, Caesar! Poster: Lights! Camera! Abduction!". Max. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
Mallenbaum, Carly (February 2, 2016). "'Hail, Caesar!': 5 things we learned at the premiere". USA Today. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
McNary, Dave (October 29, 2014). "Coen Brothers Comedy ‘Hail Caesar!’ Set for Release on Feb. 5, 2016". Variety.com. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
Barraclough, Leo (December 4, 2015). "Coen Brothers’ ‘Hail, Caesar!’ to Open Berlin Film Festival". Variety.com. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
Woburn, Dan (January 8, 2016). "Hail, Caesar’s Release Has Been Pushed Back (But There’s A New Poster To Make Up For It)". WhatCulture.com. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
"Box Office Plays Defense Against Super Bowl With Younger Skewing Fare". deadline.com.
"Moviegoers Begin To ‘Hail, Caesar!’ & Walk To ‘Zombies’ On Thursday Night". deadline.com.
"‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ Pummeling ‘Caesar’, ‘Zombies’ & ‘The Choice’ At Weekend B.O.". deadline.com.
"Hail, Caesar! (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
"Hail, Caesar! reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
"'Hail, Caesar!': Hooray For the Coen brothets' Hollywood Homage". Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
Vejvoda, Jim. "Hail, Caesar! review". IGN. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
Melissa Anderson (February 2, 2016). "COEN BROS. HOLLYWOOD FARCE 'HAIL, CAESAR!' FLAMES OUT". Village Voice. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
Hail, Caesar!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Coen brothers film. For the Anthony Michael Hall film, see Hail Caesar (1994 film). For the AC/DC song, see Hail Caesar (song).
Hail, Caesar! | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | |
Produced by |
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Written by |
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Starring | |
Narrated by | Michael Gambon |
Music by | Carter Burwell |
Cinematography | Roger Deakins |
Edited by |
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Production
companies |
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Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates
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Running time
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100 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $22 million[1] |
Box office | $11.4 million[1] |
First revealed in 2004, the film was originally set to take place in the 1920s and follow actors performing a play about ancient Rome. The Coens shelved the idea until late 2013, when they stated it was in development. Principal photography began in November 2014 in Los Angeles, California. The film premiered in Los Angeles on February 1, 2016, opened wide February 5, 2016, and will open the 66th Berlin International Film Festival on February 11.
Hail, Caesar! received generally positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised its casting.
Contents
Plot
Eddie Mannix (Brolin), head of production at Capitol Pictures, also works as a "fixer" to keep the scandalous behavior of its stars out of the press. The Lockheed Corporation has been courting him with an offer of a high-level executive position, but he is unsure about taking it. When unmarried actress DeeAnna Moran (Johansson) becomes pregnant, Mannix arranges for her to put the baby in foster care and then adopt it without revealing herself as the mother. He often has to fend off inquiries from Thora and Thessaly Thacker (both played by Swinton), twin sisters and rival gossip columnists.The studio's major production is Hail, Caesar!, an epic set in ancient Rome and starring Baird Whitlock (Clooney). During a shoot, Whitlock drinks from a goblet of wine drugged by an extra; he passes out behind the soundstage and is abducted. A ransom note soon arrives, written by a group calling itself "The Future" and demanding $100,000, which Mannix arranges to have paid. Whitlock awakens in a beach house and finds his way into a meeting of The Future, a Communist cell. The members explain their doctrine to him, and he begins to sympathize with their cause.
Meanwhile, singing Western film star Hobie Doyle (Ehrenreich) is cast in a period drama helmed by director Laurence Laurentz (Fiennes), as an attempt to broaden his appeal. Doyle's performance is hopelessly inept, but Mannix insists that he stay with the production and try to learn from Laurentz. While attending the premiere of one of his own Westerns with starlet Carlotta Valdez, Doyle recognizes the briefcase containing the ransom money, having previously seen it on Mannix's desk. It is being carried by Burt Gurney (Tatum), star of a sailor comedy; Doyle follows him to the beach house, but finds only Whitlock waiting for him there. The rest of The Future's members have rowed Gurney offshore so he can rendezvous with a Soviet submarine and turn over the money. As he boards, his dog jumps into his arms, causing him to drop the briefcase so that it sinks into the ocean. Doyle takes Whitlock back to the studio as the police arrive to arrest the group.
Whitlock tries to explain his newfound Communist leanings to Mannix, who cuts him off sharply and orders him to finish his role in Hail, Caesar! Thora threatens to publish a column revealing that Whitlock got his first major film role by having sex with Laurentz, citing Gurney as her source. However, Mannix persuades her not to run the story, since Gurney is a Communist and her own reputation would suffer by association. DeeAnna marries Joseph Silverman (Hill), a surety agent who had agreed to take her baby into foster care. Mannix decides to reject the Lockheed offer and continue working at Capitol.
Historical context
Set in the early 1950s, Hail, Caesar! takes place at a transitional time for the film industry. The studio system was breaking down and studios had already been forced to divest their movie theaters. Television, then still in its early years, was threatening to pull away audiences. The Cold War and the Red Scare were both underway. Hollywood responded by creating escapist fare: westerns, Busby Berkeley aquatic spectacles, and, as the film title suggests, Roman epics with massive casts.[2]Writing in the Washington Post, Kristen Page-Kirby noted that the nostalgia for the Hollywood golden age is heavily filtered by time. "It’s easy to look back at any part of the past and say, 'Yeah, that’s how it should be today.' Hail, Caesar! uses the uniformly terrible fake movies within it to show that while we all remember 1946 for stuff like The Yearling and Notorious, it also gave us Tarzan and the Leopard Woman."[3]
Cast
- Josh Brolin as Eddie Mannix, a "fixer" who keeps actors' scandals out of the press.[4][5]
- George Clooney as Baird Whitlock, a Kirk Douglas-type[6] movie star.
- Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie Doyle, a Kirby Grant-type "singing cowboy" actor and one of Mannix's clients[7][8]
- Ralph Fiennes as Laurence Laurentz, a film director[9]
- Jonah Hill as Joseph Silverman, a surety agent who works with the studio[7][10]
- Scarlett Johansson as DeeAnna Moran, an Esther Williams-type actress who becomes pregnant while her film is in production[7][10]
- Frances McDormand as film editor C.C. Calhoun[8][11]
- Tilda Swinton as both Thora Thacker and Thessaly Thacker, twin rival Hedda Hopper-type gossip columnists[12]
- Channing Tatum as Burt Gurney, a Gene Kelly-type actor and one of Mannix's clients[12]
- Alison Pill as Mrs. Mannix, Eddie's wife.[13]
- Veronica Osorio as Carlotta Valdez,[14] a Carmen Miranda-type actress[15]
- Emily Beecham[16] as Dierdre
- Heather Goldenhersh as Natalie, Mannix's secretary [17]
- Wayne Knight as film extra and Communist screenwriter[18]
- Max Baker as John Howard Hermann, head Communist screenwriter[19]
- Christopher Lambert as Arne Slessum, a filmmaker who has an affair with DeeAnna[20]
- Fred Melamed as Fred, a Communist screenwriter[19]
- Patrick Fischler as Benedict, a Communist screenwriter[19]
- David Krumholtz as a Communist screenwriter[19]
- Fisher Stevens as a Communist screenwriter[19]
- Alex Karpovsky as Mr. Smitrovich[19]
- Clancy Brown as Communist Screenwriter[19]
- Robert Picardo[21] as Rabbi
- Natasha Bassett as Gloria DeLamour [22]
- John Bluthal as Herbert Marcuse [23]
- Dolph Lundgren[24] as a Soviet "submarine commander"[25]
- Michael Gambon as the narrator[6][26]
Production
- Joel Coen – director, screenwriter, producer, editor
- Ethan Coen – director, screenwriter, producer, editor
- Eric Fellner – producer
- Tim Bevan – producer
- Roger Deakins – cinematographer
- Mary Zophres – costume designer[27]
- Carter Burwell – music composer
Development
The idea and title were first suggested by the Coens in July 2004.[28] A comedy film, the story was originally said to follow "a troupe of actors in the 1920s putting on a play about ancient Rome", with the focus on a matinée idol.[29] George Clooney was to play the main character.[28][30] In February 2008, the Coens said that the film did not have a script, but only existed as an idea. They stated that it would be the third in the "Numbskull Trilogy" with Clooney, following O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Intolerable Cruelty (2003).[31]The project was mentioned in a December 2013 interview about Inside Llewyn Davis. Joel Coen revealed that they were "working on" Hail, Caesar!, and that it would likely be their next project.[32] The Coens reconfirmed the film's development in May 2014, with the plot now focused on a "fixer" working in the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s.[29][33]
Pre-production
In December 2013, the Coens confirmed that Clooney would remain involved with the project.[30] In June 2014, Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum, Ralph Fiennes, and Tilda Swinton joined the cast, Universal Pictures was announced to be distributing the film, and Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan signed on to produce the film for Working Title Films.[4][34][35] In July, Jonah Hill and Scarlett Johansson entered talks to join the production. Johansson would portray "an actress who suddenly becomes pregnant as her film is about to go into production".[10] The next month, Johansson and Hill were confirmed to have joined the cast, and Alden Ehrenreich entered negotiations to star.[7] In a September 2014 interview with The Daily Beast, Frances McDormand said she had a role in the film.[11] In October, Patrick Fischler, David Krumholtz, and Fisher Stevens joined the cast as communist screenwriters, and Clancy Brown joined as an actor in the film within a film, also titled Hail, Caesar![19] The following month, Christopher Lambert was cast as Arne Slessum, a European filmmaker who has an affair with Johannson's character.[20] In a November 2014 interview at the Ottawa Pop Expo, Robert Picardo revealed that he had a role in the film and that he was set to begin filming in December.[21]Filming
In October 2014, Roger Deakins posted on his site that he would be the film's cinematographer and was shooting test footage.[36] Principal photography on the film began in Los Angeles, California on November 10, 2014.[8] According to the Los Angeles Times, the Coen brothers' decision to film in Los Angeles increased filming activity in the city, which had previously been down by "a double-digit percentage... in the fourth quarter [of 2014]".[5][37] Later the same month, Kate Morgan Chadwick was seen filming with Brolin.[38] Also in November, Emily Beecham was said to have a role in the film.[16] In December, Clooney was photographed in full Roman regalia while filming scenes in Downtown Los Angeles.[39] Tatum dyed his hair blond for his role.[40]Hail, Caesar! was the first movie that Deakins shot with film since True Grit in 2010. The Coens had themselves said that their previous movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, would probably be their last use of the medium.[41] But with Hail, Caesar!''s Hollywood themed content making film an obvious choice, Deakins agreed to give it one more try. ("I don’t mind," he recalled saying, "I’ll shoot it on a cell phone if you like.") Ultimately, though, film proved a limited palette due to the narrowing choices of stocks and processing options in the wake of digital cinematography. He didn't recall encountering those kinds of problems on earlier projects. "But it makes me nervous now. I don’t want to do that again, frankly. I don’t think the infrastructure’s there."[42]
Locations
Southern California locations were used throughout the film, presenting a challenge to location manager John Panzarella. He noted that "period locations are disappearing fast", including several employed in an earlier film he scouted, the 1997 LA Confidential. The Warner Bros. studio, which, unusually, has retained its vintage buildings, stood in for most of the fictitious Capital Pictures Productions after trailers, electrical hookups and other contemporary fixtures were removed. Union Street in downtown Los Angeles was also used for some studio exteriors. The synchronized swimming scene with Scarlett Johansson, choreographed and directed by Mesha Kussman, employed 32 performers working at the water tank on Stage 30 at Sony Pictures Studios. The wood-paneled conference room where Mannix vets the movie with religious leaders was filmed at the Cravens Estate's drawing room in Pasadena. The office of general counsel Sid Siegelstein was shot at a 1929 building in Los Angeles's Arts District later owned by Southwestern Bag Co. The building was designed by the same architecture firm that did UCLA's Royce Hall.[43][2]Locations used for scenes beyond Capital Pictures included the Appian Way scenes, which were shot at the Big Sky Movie Ranch in Simi Valley, and the western sequence, which was filmed at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. The well of Jehoshaphat sequence was shot at Bronson Canyon, formerly a quarry, in Griffith Park. The nightclub interiors, scene of Carlotta and Hobie's date, was shot at the Hollywood Palladium, with the exterior at the Fonda Theatre. Carlotta's house exterior was filmed at a 1927 home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles; this was also the locale for The Good Luck Bar, which stood in for the Imperial Gardens Chinese restaurant. The movie premiere was shot in the Los Angeles Theatre, selected for its spacious lobby.[43][2]
Soundtrack
Hail, Caesar!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
---|---|
Soundtrack album by Carter Burwell & Various | |
Released | February 5, 2016 |
Genre | Score |
Label | Back Lot Music |
Carter Burwell composed the score for the film, and wrote original songs along with Henry Krieger and Willie Reale.[46][47]
Marketing
Universal and Working Title released the official trailer on October 9, 2015.[48] On December 29, 2015, the first poster for the film was released.[49] On January 7, 2016, another poster was released.[50] The January 7th poster credits Jonah Hill in both name and image although Hill's appearance in the final film is limited to a single sequence.Release
The film premiered at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on February 1, 2016[51] and was released in the United States on February 5, 2016.[52] The film will open the Berlin International Film Festival on February 11, 2016.[53] The film will be released in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2016.[54]Reception
Box office
Hail, Caesar! was released in North America on February 5, 2016, alongside Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and The Choice. The film was projected to gross $9–11 million from 2,231 theaters in its opening weekend.[55] It made $543,000 from Thursday night previews and $4.3 million on its first day.[56] The film grossed $11.4 million in its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office behind Kung Fu Panda 3 ($21 million).[57]Critical response
Hail, Caesar! has received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 79%, based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Packed with period detail and perfectly cast, Hail, Caesar! finds the Coen brothers delivering an agreeably lightweight love letter to post-war Hollywood."[58] On Metacritic the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[59]Richard Roeper gave the film four out of four stars, calling the film one of his favorite movies ever made about making movies.[60] IGN gave the film 7.7/10, saying, "Hail, Caesar! may not be one of the Coen Brothers' finest efforts -- and it might not engage viewers beyond Los Angeles or those who truly understand or work in the film industry -- but it's nevertheless a fun, charming, and oft-hilarious take on Hollywood's Golden Age."[61] In a review for The Village Voice, Melissa Anderson praised the performances, but found that the tone and humor of the film "too often goes flat."[62]
John Anderson of the Wall Street Journal described the film as being "a dispiritingly vitriolic, only sporadically funny satire of ’50s Hollywood".[63]
The film received less enthusiastic reviews from audiences. On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale. 52% of the opening day audience were males while 84% were over 25, with both demographics giving the film a "D+" grade, while those over 50 years old gave the film a "D-".[57] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 48% from audiences.[58]
References
- Anderson, John. "‘Hail Caesar!’ Review: An Unappetizing Salad". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
External links
- Official website
- Hail, Caesar! at the Internet Movie Database
- Animated teasers, commissioned by Universal for social media
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Categories:
- 2016 films
- English-language films
- American films
- 2010s comedy films
- 2010s mystery films
- American comedy films
- American mystery films
- Comedy mystery films
- Film scores by Carter Burwell
- Films about actors
- Films about filmmaking
- Films directed by the Coen brothers
- Films produced by Tim Bevan
- Films produced by Eric Fellner
- Films set in California
- Films set in the 1950s
- Films shot in Los Angeles, California
- Working Title Films films
- Universal Pictures films
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