Jon Polito: R.I.P.

Today director John McNaughton posted the news on Facebook of the death of his long-time friend Jon Polito. Polito was 65.

Polito was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was known for working with the Coen Brothers, most notably in the major supporting role of Italian gangster Johnny Caspar in Miller's Crossing, but also in Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski. He appeared as Detective Steve Crosetti in the first two seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street and on the first season of Crime Story. Polito won an OBIE award in 1980 for his theater performances off Broadway and for his lifetime of work in film and television he received the Maverick Spirit Event Award at Cinequest Film Festival in 2005. In 2012, he won the award for "Best Actor in a Short Film" at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. He appeared in over 100 films, countless TV episodes (including Seinfeld, Modern Family) and on Broadway.

Coen Brothers to Write Adaptation of Ross Macdonald's Black Money

Cool News:

From Flavorwire:

The Coen Brothers are among our most literary-minded modern filmmakers; their stylish dialogue and Swiss-watch plotting often feels as much of the printed page as the celluloid frame, and films like Blood Simple, Miller’s Crossing, and even The Big Lebowski wear their lit influences on their sleeves. But the Coens have done surprisingly few straight-up adaptations: there’s their Oscar-winning take on Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men, and 2010’s True Grit, and that’s about it. But Deadline is reporting they’ve been hired by Warner Brothers to write and possibly direct a film adaptation of Ross Macdonald’s 1966 crime novel Black Money, a match-up that sounds very promising indeed.

Macdonald—the non de plume of writer Kenneth Millar—was a master of hardboiled California crime stories, best known for his series concerning Lew Archer, a tough but honorable private eye. Two of those novels were adapted into the Paul Newman vehicles Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1975), but aside from those films and a couple other Millar adaptations, his work hasn’t made it to the big screen all that often.

READ MORE HERE.