Coens planning a BARTON FINK sequel

In a surprising development, the Coen brothers tell MTV News that they're planning a sequel to Barton Fink, their odd, 1991 box office bomb. The film starred John Turturro as an affected, 1940s East coast playwright who comes to Hollywood to try and write for the movies, only to find himself staying in an immense and eerie hotel with a friendly psycho (John Goodman) in the room next door.

"It would be called 'Old Fink,'" Joel said.

"We did talk to [John] Turturro about doing 'Old Fink,'" Ethan added. "We want John to be old enough to do it."

The brothers even have (at least) a baseline idea of how they would from the story. "That's another 1967 movie," Joel said in reference to "A Serious Man," which is also set during that turbulent period. "It's the summer of love and [Fink is] teaching at Berkeley. He ratted on a lot of his friends to the House Un-American Activities committee."

"He's got the George Kaufman hair but he's going gray," Ethan said. "He wears a medallion." As if that explains everything. And it kinda does.

"We told Turturro this is one sequel we'd actually like to make but not until he was actually old enough to play the part," Joel explained. How old is old enough, you may ask? "He's getting there," Ethan said.

I was really disappointed with Barton Fink, I found it really tedious and self-indulgent. But it's one of those movies that sticks with you, as the months and years go by, you realize that there was a lot to like about it. I can't call myself a fan exactly, but there's definitely something special there.

A sequel all these years later sounds like a rather defiantly un-commercial idea. No matter how little they spend on it, it'll probably take them ten years or more to earn it back. It also sounds like it could be great... Or at least flawed in that interesting Coen brothers way.

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