In the Coen Brothers’ beloved 1998 comedy “The Big Lebowski,” The Dude, Walter and Donny face off against colorful pederast bowler Jesus Quintana, played by John Turturro. Since the film’s release, Jesus has grown in the imagination of the fanbase as well as Turturro himself. Now, Turturro’s latest directorial effort “Going Places,” based on Bertrand Biler’s novel and 1974 erotic comedy film by the same name, resurrects the Jesus character in a spinoff of “Lebowski.” In a new interview with Screen Daily, Turturro says that the Coens support his new film.
“It kind of blew their minds,” says Turturro. “They thought it was a great idea and told me, ‘We’ve taken a character inspired from a stage play and now you want to put him in a movie which is a French movie, which was inspired by American road movies.'”
Turturro had been wrestling with the adapted screenplay for a while but struggled particularly with updating the main character Jean-Claude, originally played by Gérard Depardieu. “I was calling him JC, and it reminded me of this character I’d done in a play many, many years ago…that had inspired Joel and Ethan to write the character of Jesus Quintana,” he says. “So I thought, ‘Wow! We’ve talked about doing something with Jesus Quintana but it was always silly.’ I started playing around with it and I thought we could be on to something with his irony and the irreverence of the character.”
READ MORE: David Huddleston, Who Played the Titular ‘The Big Lebowski,’ Dies at 85
“Going Places” is shooting in New York. There is no release info at this time.
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