Given his stock right now, it appears absurd that someone with Josh Brolin's credentials could be cast and subsequently cut from a motion picture. Yet that is precisely what has occurred for Suburbicon, an upcoming crime thriller/black comedy from director George Clooney.
With Brolin set to showcase his talents in two Marvel blockbusters - Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War, even someone with the standing of James Cameron could not convince the actor to join his sequel Avatar 2, much to his chagrin. As Clooney would outline though, the circumstances could not be more of a contrast to that tense situation.
Joshing About - Brolin Too Funny For Story to Work
Following news that Woody Harrelson had to knock back Clooney's requests due to a scheduling conflict, Brolin jumped about the project. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the 56-year old argued that his humor was so side-splittingly good that it interrupted the thriller element of the movie.
"We shot a couple of scenes with Josh (playing) a baseball coach that are really really funny, but after we did our first screening, the one thing that became really clear to me was that (the scenes) let the air out of the balloon, in terms of the tension in the film."
It would be a blow to Clooney, having the unenviable task of informing Brolin that it was just not going to work out.
"I had to write him this awful note where I just said, 'You're not going to believe it, but these scenes really don't work any more.' He felt bad, and he thought maybe something went wrong, and I said, 'I'm sending you the scenes, so you can see, they're actually the two funniest scenes in the movie.' I remember sitting there with the editor going, 'F***! I can't believe this!' But I've sort of been in the same situation."
George: Just Don't Call This a Comedy
Making an executive decision based on the tone of the feature, Clooney would discuss the title earlier to inform viewers that this is not a straight-laced comedy. Even loosely so.
"There’s some misconceptions," he point out. "They keep calling it a ‘comedy’ and you’d be hard-pressed to find a lot of funny in it. It’s a pretty angry and dark film, which is sort of what we wanted to make at the time. Every time I see someone go, ‘Yeah, it’s a black-comedy!’ you go, ‘There’s a couple of laughs, but it wasn’t designed to be ha-ha funny.'"
Scoring Joel and Ethan Cohen as writers and a cast that still boasts the likes of Matt Damon, Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac, Clooney says that the film starts out as one thing but transitions into something far more sinister.
"It’s very very dark," he says. "It starts out feeling like a Disney film and, by the end, it feels like it takes a pretty dramatic, serious turn to, like, an acid trip of some form."
Suburbicon opens in the US on October 27.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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