If I didn’t know that Zhang Yimou’s (Hero) upcoming film The First Gun (formerly Amazing Tales: Three Guns) was a remake of/re-imaging of/in-anyway-connected-to the Coen Brothers classic, debut film Blood Simple., then I never would have guessed it from the Chinese trailer that just went online.  Now I don’t speak Chinese (or Mandarin or whatever dialect or language they’re speaking in the trailer) but none of the images clue me in to the plot of a cuckold who hires a hitman to murder his adulterous wife and her lover.  It’s not the setting.  I just can’t see the plot.  I guess maybe the guy in black with the bow and arrow and a cannon is the hitman?  Clearly, Yimou has made some radical changes, but when you see this trailer, I doubt you’ll think, “Huh.  This kind of reminds me of Blood Simple.”

Check out the trailer after the jump and maybe you can see a resemblance that I’m missing from all this.

Committed to putting out one film per year, the Joel and Ethan Coen have been speeding ahead with their re-adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel, “True Grit”.  Known as the film that finally won John Wayne an Oscar, the Coens’ version will remain much closer to the novel.  With the casting of Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn (Wayne’s role in the 1969 version), today there’s news that Matt Damon and Josh Brolin could be joining the cast.  Hit the jump because it’s not like a new Coen Brothers movie isn’t reason enough to get excited.

Combined with “No Country for Old Men” and “Burn After Reading”, The Coen Brothers’ latest movie, “A Serious Man” could complete an unofficial “Existentialist Trilogy”.  “No Country” says that the world is an uncertain and unforgiving place.  “Burn After Reading” says the same thing but the idea is played for laughs instead of drama.  “A Serious Man” takes a different approach and wonders if uncertainty is so bad when certainty can be far worse.  Furthermore, what good is reason if the world is an irrational place?

Peter (from Slashfilm) and I usually record our video blog’s in separate locations through the magic of the internet, but since we’re both attending this year’s Toronto Film Festival, we’ve decided to record some video blogs talking about some of the movies we’ve seen at the festival. We’ve tried to keep the video blogs short and to the point, but, as always, it sometimes goes longer than planned. But if you know us, that’s to be expected.

Anyway, after the jump you can watch Peter and I talk about the new Coen Brothers movie “A Serious Man” and the new Jason Reitman movie “Up in the Air”. We loved both films and the buzz you’re hearing is totally accurate. Listen to what we thought after the jump:

Just a few days ago, we posted a story about Jeff Bridges joining the Coen Brothers in their upcoming movie “True Grit”. When the story went online, we all assumed this was definitely the brothers next project and more casting would be announced soon. But that might not be the case. The reason I say this is, I just spoke with the brothers during a roundtable interview for their new film “A Serious Man” and they told me, “We don’t have a go ahead on this movie. We don’t have a cast - or the rest of it. Hopefully it’ll happen. It’s just in the talking stages right now.” More after the jump:

[Disclaimer: All commenting on this story must make at least one reference to "The Big Lebowski"]

Who do you get to fill the massive boots of John Wayne, especially when Wayne won his only Oscar for that particular massive boot-wearing role?  Well, if you’re the Coen Brothers you could just say, “We’re the Coen Brothers and we’ll cast whoever we goddamn please and you will like it.”  But instead they’ve cast a man and it’s Jeff Bridges and I won’t do the whole opening monologue from “The Big Lebowski”.  Just hit the jump for the news about this delightful casting.

Sometimes you have to sell an article. Other times you can just say new images from The Coen Brother’s “A Serious Man”. They’re after the jump:

This poster for “A Serious Man” isn’t quite as good as the trailer but that’s a tough act to follow.  It’s not that this poster is bad but it’s hard to tell if Michael Stuhlbarg is looking defiant or contemplative.  Perhaps that’s the point.  I do know that I loved the heading “The New Film By Joel and Ethan Coen” as if it’s an event, which it is.

Hit the jump to check out the new poster.  “A Serious Man” hits theatres in a limited release on October 2nd.

I don’t even know why there’s a trailer for this.  It certainly doesn’t need to be this freaking good.  Aren’t we at the point where you can have a trailer where it’s nothing but the words, “The Coen Brothers have a new film.  It’s called ‘A Serious Man’.  See it or you’re stupid and you smell funny,”?  I mean, I never took a class in marketing but I don’t think the Coens going up to a camera and throwing their Oscars and past films at the lens would be out of line.  They are legends and I was going to see “A Serious Man” no matter what.  Seeing a trailer like this just makes it worse.  I’d hold a grudge against the guys but that’s impossible.

See the trailer after the jump not because you need convincing but because you were going to anyway.

Sony Pictures Classic has acquired the North American rights to legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s latest, currently untitled film.  This is not really big news considering that the studio has previously handled distribution for ten of the director’s earlier works, including “Raise the Red Lantern” and “House of Flying Daggers”.  No, the really cool part of this story is the nature of Zhang Yimou’s next project - a remake of the Coen Brother’s very first feature film “Blood Simple”.  To find out why, in this case, a remake of an excellent film is NOT a bad idea follow the jump…

On one hand it’s great Fox has been releasing their catalog titles in 1080p and in DTS looking great. On the other hand, they haven’t put in that much work to jazz it up for audiences buying it a second time. None of the films here have anything new, but all look appreciably better in their Blu-ray iterations. After the jump are my reviews of “Predator 2″, “Fargo” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” on Blu-ray.