Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers

Subject: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: GUEST,C. Ham
Date: 26 Jun 11 - 10:03 PM

Mike Regenstreif has a report on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches blog about the Coen Brothers next movie being based on Dave Van Ronk.

Folk Roots/Folk Branches blog

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: Mark Ross
Date: 26 Jun 11 - 11:01 PM

Elijah Wald, who edited Dave's memoirs, told me today that someone optioned the book about 3 years ago. He also told me that when Sean Penn was trying to do a film about Phil Ochs, DVR was trying to get the part of Albert Grossman!

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 01:09 PM

Would have loved to see Van Ronk play Grossman. LOL!

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: frogprince
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 07:19 PM

So, who would you nominate to portray Von Ronk?

If we could live without quite as much gravel in the voice as the real thing, I'm thinking Joel Mabus might be able to carry it off pretty well.

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 09:48 AM

Maybe Jeff Bridges.

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 12:04 PM

From the The Los Angeles Times blog that others are citing:

EXCLUSIVE: The Coen Bros. told an audience at New York's Lincoln Center earlier this month that they were working on a music-related film, but didn't offer any specifics.

Now a clearer picture is emerging on the subject of that movie: the Greenwich Village folk scene seen through the eyes of its larger-than-life patriarch.

The Coen Bros. are working on a script that's loosely based on the life of Dave van Ronk, said a source who was briefed on the project but who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the filmmakers' behalf. Van Ronk is a legendary musician who presided over New York city's iconoclastic coffeehouse period of the mid-20th century,

The musician, who died in 2002, was known as the uncle of the coffeehouse scene, a big personality famed for his musical acumen, left-wing politics, general erudition and entertaining storytelling. On his watch, era-defining musicians such as Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell were discovered and cultivated. Van Ronk also was a noted blues guitarist in his own right. A spokeswoman for the Coens did not immediately have a comment on her clients' behalf.

Van Ronk, who died in 2002 at the age of 66, published a posthumous memoir three years later titled "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" which a collaborator helped collate. The source said the Coens are drawing in part from material in the book.

The Greenwich Village figure, a noted supporter of progressive causes, was also arrested during the neighborhood's famous Stonewall Riots, an event that gives a van Ronk movie a certain relevance in light of the New York State legislature's move to legalize gay marriage on Friday.

At the Lincoln Center talk, the Coens compared their movie to "Margot at the Wedding" (Noah Baumbach was on stage with them) suggesting that, like that film, their new work will offer natural dialogue and a feeling of being dropped into the middle of a world. They also said they expected the film to contain musical performances. "We're working on a movie now that has music in it [that's] pretty much all performed live, single instrument," Joel Coen said.

The Coens, who had what was by far their biggest success box-office ever with the western "True Grit" last year, are often known for tackling wildly disparate subjects from film to film. They've made one notable music-heavy movie before, spotlighting a decidedly different era in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

-- Steven Zeitchik

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~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: Bettynh
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 10:07 AM

Robin Williams as Shel Silverstein??

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: Amos
Date: 24 Jan 13 - 11:35 PM

Trailer on the Coen Love Letter here.

It's a grin.

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: GUEST,Hooga
Date: 23 Feb 13 - 08:42 PM

They was frenz

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: mayomick
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 06:36 AM

Gaslighted by the FBI article:https://truthout.org/articles/newly-unearthed-fbi-file-exposes-targeting-of-folk-singer-dave-van-ronk/?utm_source=sharebuttons&u

Subject: RE: Dave Van Ronk & the Coen Brothers
From: gillymor
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 07:47 AM

I thought Inside Llewyn Davis was interesting if a bit grim but it did produce an excellent version of Farewell Thee Well (Dink's Song) by Issac, Mumford and the Punch Brothers.