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Burn After Reading
Interview with John Malkovich
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Pedigree: After No Country the Coens are back at their best, and with this cast (Malkovich, Clooney, Pitt, McDormand) the outlook is very bright indeed. Estimated budget: $50 million. Predicted box office: $50 million (US gross), $180 million (worldwide).
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"It's a really funny script in my opinion. An inter-related black comedy of manners, set in Washington, D. C., but not particularly involved at all with the politics." Thus runs Coens virgin John Malkovich's take on the directing-brothers' new movie, hot on the heels of their acclaimed thriller, No Country For Old Men. What is certain is that it couldn't be more different, back in the zany-genius school of The Big Lebowksi and Raising Arizona.
Malkovich is Ozzie Cox, a fired CIA vet who takes his revenge by writing some inflammatory memoirs and then loses them. George Clooney is a fellow spy investigating the matter, who meets Francis McDormand via computer dating, who runs a gym where Brad Pitt works. Craziness and zippy wordplay ensue.
"No-one in this film is very good," laughs Malkovich. "They're either slightly emotionally or mentally defective. Quirky, self-aggrandising, scheming. Nobody's particularly bad in it, but the guy I play just has a very bad drinking problem. He's an analyst in the CIA, fired because he has a drinking problem, so he turns to his boss and says, 'I have a drinking problem? Fuck you. You're a Mormon - next to you, we all have drinking problems!'
The Coens are very delightful: smart, funny, very specific about what they want but not overly controlling, as some people can be. It's a good cast, funny people, everybody has a good part and kind of unexpected ones."
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