The Coen brothers are quirky n’ stuff, right? Lots of dialogue, zany characters, mad cap stories, etc, etc., yeah? Fuck that. The new trailer for “Burn After Reading,” is completely different in tone than the first one and seems to say, “Alright, cut the shit. Let’s put some asses in theaters seats.”
Was it cut by someone other than the Coen brothers, possibly in a suit, resembling Harvey Weinstein if some such figure existed over at Focus Features? Was it approved by test audiences outside their demographic? Let’s just say yes.
The song that soundtrack this cut-to-the-chase, no-nonsense trailer (which barely features any dialogue and instead quick cuts of action, car crashes and kicks to the groin – essentially anyhow) is Elbow’s “Grounds For Divorce,” and it perfectly suggests that cut the cutesy crap vibe they’re going for here (or a higher up at Focus Features is going for anyhow).
The small synopsis is: a disk containing the memoirs of a cast out CIA agent (John Malkovich) ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it (Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand) and exploit it for its potential worth (George Clooney stars too). Will it be more ‘Lebowski’ than “Intolerable Cruelty”? It definitely resembled the bumbling mood of their scewball-leaning later work (things like “The Ladykillers”) in trailer #1, but this version suggest something darker (though $100 this is false advertising and the film is way more goofy and slapstick). Either way, the film is set to hit theaters on September 12, 2008.
