The Coen Brothersare not known for making sequels to their movies, and have made it quite clear that the prospect doesn’t interest them very much. But that doesn’t mean we won’t ever see some of their beloved characters return. In fact, we may finally be seeing some characters fromThe Big Lebowskimake their way back to the big screen in the near future. How, you may ask? Well, It looks like a new spinoff movie involvingJohn Turturro’s character Jesus Quintana is currently being filmed in New York.
A new report fromBirth.Movies.Deathclaims that the movieGoing Places, which he is currently filming and is said to be a remake of a 70s French movie, is actually aBig Lebowskispinoff. The script was reportedly written byTurturrohimself, and he has assembled a cast that includesBobby Cannavale,Audrey TautouandSusan Sarandon. The movie is said to be a couple of weeks into production already, but does not have a distributor. Here is the alleged the plot of the movie, as Birth.Movies.Death tells it, which is still supposedly borrowed from the originalGoing Places.
“Two petty thieves, Turturro’s Jesus and Cannavale’s Petey, compete to give a woman (Tautou) her first orgasm after she’s roped into their hijinks. Sarandon also ends up in their company, playing a criminal who just got out after a long stint in prison.”
As wacky as this may sound, this is far from the first we have heard about it. A couple of months ago,Turturrotalked about wanting to do a spinoff involving hisJesus Quintanacharacter fromThe Big Lebowski. He stated that he would have the blessing of bothJoelandEthan Coenif the project were to move forward. While discussing the project with The Hollywood Reporter, his lawyer was shouting for him not to talk about it, as there were some legal issues.Turturroalso revealed that he had created the character himself years ago for a state play he was working on.
“It’s a very complicated legal situation. Until things are all signed, you may’t really talk about it. But we’ll see. This would be something they (Coen Brothers) would support with me.”
The Coen Brothersare reportedly not creatively involved in the movie, but asTurturrostated, they are at the very least supporting his decision to make the movie. It is very unlikely that he would be able to, or want to move ahead on the movie, were theCoen Brothersnot okay with it. It doesn’t hurt thatTurturrohas been working with the directors, dating back toMiller’s Crossingin 1990.
InThe Big Lebowski, Jesus Quintana was a bowling rival ofThe Dude(Jeff Bridges), Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and Donny Kerabatsos (Steve Buscemi). Jesus' team meets The Dude’s team in their bowling league semi-finals, where he keeps antagonizing The Dude, Walter and Donny. At one point in the movie, Walter claims that Jesus is a “pederast,” having served six months in Chino for exposing himself to an 8-year-old.
The Big Lebowskididn’t exactly break any box office records when it hit theaters in 1998, earning just $17.4 million. It did, however, go on to become a cult classic, even spawning a yearly event in Louisville, Kentucky, with the 15th annual Lebowski festival having just finished up a couple of months ago. Thisspin-off moviewas teased byTurturroa couple of years back, and it looks like it is finally happening. We will be sure to keep you updated as more information becomes available.
