The Coen Brothers are two of the most well-respected filmmakers alive and working today, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that they always have their pick of Hollywood’s finest when it comes to casting their movies. Now, we’re hearing that Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes, three red-hot actors, are in negotiations to join the cast of the Coen Brothers’ next venture – a Hollywood-set period comedy titled Hail, Caesar!
Tatum, Swinton and Fiennes would join George Clooney in the movie, which centers on the strange life of Eddie Mannix (Clooney), a fixer who works for the Hollywood studios to protect the reputations of actors and actresses in the 1950s. Because this is a Coen Brothers movie, there’s a very colorful cast of supporting characters with whom Mannix comes into contact.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke news of the casting, Tatum’s character is a star not unlike Gene Kelly, while Swinton will take on the role of a powerful Hollywood gossip columnist with whom Mannix undoubtedly butts heads. For his part, Fiennes would portray Laurence Lorenz, a powerful Hollywood studio director.
All three actors are riding high at the moment. Tatum received strong praise for his starring role in comedy 22 Jump Street, and he’ll be courting Oscar voters this fall with a main role in Bennett Miller’s heartbreaking drama Foxcatcher, in which he plays an Olympic Wrestling Champion whose brother (Mark Ruffalo) is slain by paranoid schizophrenic John du Pont (Steve Carell).
Swinton recently earned raves for leading the vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive, and she has another well-received role coming up in Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer, in which she plays the vicious upper-class minister of a giant train which houses the last living humans after a global ice age and eventually becomes the center of a class war. Looking further back, she also earned a Golden Globe nomination for the 2011 film We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Finally, Fiennes could very well ride a wave of critical praise for his incredible turn in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel all the way to an Oscar nomination later this year. The actor also recently directed, produced and starred in the gritty Shakespeare take Coriolanus, to widespread acclaim.
All three are strong additions to the cast of Hail, Caesar!, and you can bet that we’ll be anxiously keeping an eye on this project as it develops.