Stogie News: Coen Brothers Movie Filming in Club Macanudo
18 Sep 2007
Joel and Ethan Coen – the famed writing/directing duo – are currently filming their next movie, Burn After Reading, in New York City. Portions of the film, which has been described as a “black comedy,†will take place at the Club Macanudo cigar bar on New York’s Upper East Side.
The movie stars George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand (Joel Coen’s wife), and Brad Pitt. Clooney has starred in two previous Coen Brothers movies – O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty.
According to Victoria McKee of General Cigar and Club Macanudo, while Pitt and Clooney do not have any scenes at the cigar club, John Malkovich will be filming scenes there today. This is Malkovich’s first collaboration with the Coens, but the feeling is that his acting style is a good fit for the duo.
In the movie, Malkovich will play Ozzie Cox, a former CIA agent whose soon-to-be ex-wife (Frances McDormand) steals a disc containing his memoirs and accidentally leaves it at the gym where it is found by a trainer (Brad Pitt) who believes he can use the info to blackmail Cox. To protect Cox, the CIA hires an assassin (George Clooney) to take care of the situation.
The Oscar-winning Coen Brothers are known for such movies as Raising Arizona, Fargo, and (my personal favorite) The Big Lebowski. While the new film’s title is a play on the book Burn Before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors, and Secret Intelligence by Admiral Stansfield Turner, director of the CIA from 1977-1981, the movie is an original screenplay written by the Coen Brothers.
Tags: cigars
Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief
Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder & Publisher
George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief
I’m not trying to be obnoxious, but “Burn Before Reading” is a play on the common saying (at least common in some circles), “Burn after reading.” The movie is using this phrase to point out that the plot has something to do with sensitive material, not to play off of the title of a book that by coincidence is playing off the phrase that happens to be the title of this movie.
Wait… Did that even make sense?