Scarlett Johansson, Jonah Hill Slated for Coen Brothers Movie
Scarlett Johansson and Jonah Hill will likely be joining the star-studded cast of the Coen Brother’s upcoming 1950s Hollywood comedy Hail Caesar! according to Variety magazine.
Channing Tatum, George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton have also been confirmed to be joining the cast. Johansson will play a star who suddenly becomes pregnant before shooting her next movie. Johansson herself may be pregnant during the filming if production gets rolling by this fall as expected – she is currently awaiting a child with her fiancé Romain Dauriac, the owner of an independent advertising agency. Johansson’s role in the film is rumored to be small and will wrap filming quickly.
Few details have emerged of the film other than that it will be about a Hollywood fixer who watches over actors and actresses to keep them out of trouble. The roles of other cast members have also offered insight into the production. Swinton will play a gossip reporter, Fiennes a director and Tatum one of the said difficult actors. George Clooney will take the leading role as the fixer, Eddie Mannix.
The film will be Johansson’s first collaboration with the directing duo since 2003’s The Man Who Wasn’t There. Clooney will be joining the Coens for his fourth time since 2000’s O Brother! Where Art Thou?, and Brolin his third following the remake of the John Wayne classic True Grit and the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men.
The brothers will also see two of their other scripts come to life soon: one in Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut Unbroken and another for a Cold War thriller directed by Steven Spielberg, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Johansson has also been in the news this week for winning a defamation lawsuit against French novelist Grégoire Delacourt. Delacourt’s novel La Première Chose Qu’on Regarde (The First Thing You Look At) featured a lead character modeled after Scarlett that spends the book drifting through a string of imagined love affairs between Johansson and other actors. Her lawyer asked for nearly $70,000 in damages and a halt order on any further translations or film projects of the book, but in the end she was only awarded $3,500 plus $4,200 in court fees, reported The Guardian.
“I thought she might send me flowers as [the book] was a declaration of love for her, but she didn’t understand it at all,” Delacourt said. “It’s a strange paradox – but a very American one.”
Johansson will also be starring in Luc Besson’s sci-fi thriller Lucy, set to hit IMAX theaters this August.
