Good news for all fans of Joel and Ethan Coen: they’ve both announced the title and scored some of the funding for their next planned project, musical biopic Inside Llewyn Davis.
You might recall that word began to emerge a couple of months ago about the Coens working away on what was then believed to be a film about the life story of American folk music guru Dave Van Ronk.
But as the name suggests, the final product won’t be directly about Van Ronk, but instead inspired by his life. The rough plot synopsis picked up by Variety makes references to Davis’ struggles as a folk musician in 1960s New York, which just so happens to be where Van Ronk became most famous (and it’s clearly no coincidence that one of his most famous albums was Inside Dave Van Ronk).
A skilled blues guitarist and left-wing political activist, Van Ronk acted as friend and even mentor to many of the musicians who were starting their careers at the time, including such influential future recording artists as Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. Once described as “a walking museum of the blues,” he died in 2002.
So far there are no details about the movie beyond that plot nugget, though we do know that No Country for Old Men and **True Grit **producer Scott Rudin is aboard and StudioCanal will be co-financing the production while also drumming up international sales. A distributor has yet to be announced, and we don’t know when shooting will kick off. Place your bets now as to whether one of the Coens’ regular players will snatch the lead or if they’ll go with a new face…