Coen Brothers Developing a 1950s Hollywood Set Film - HAIL CAESAR

Joel and Ethan Coen are in the process of developing their next film project called Hail Caesar. I'm a big fan of their work, and this new project of theirs sounds like it's going to be great. According to Deadline, it’s about "a fixer in Hollywood circa 1950s who works for the studios to protect the stars of the day." The report goes into more detail saying, 

"The comical yarn centers on 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, then helped operate a call girl ring and lost his job as a cop and became a private eye who wiretapped. The project is being put together now.

It was not unusual during the time for studios’ internal security to protect their assets to construct and manage the squeaky clean image of their stars. The big stars of the day were under contracts for a certain number of pictures so the powerful studios had their own go-to guys (and sometimes hired outside investigators) to deep-six scandalous stories, whether it be romantic dalliances, drug use, DUIs, arrests, you name it. For the more serious threats, the fixers used pay-outs, strong-arming, and took care of 'problems' (real or perceived) by any means necessary. It was the day of the old Hollywood star system."

Apparently this kind of thing went on up until 2002. I love the setting of this story, and it's going to be a great project for the filmmakers to take on. It's perfect for their style and sense of humor.

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