A Quote by Joe Carnahan

To me, the bones of 'Smokin' Aces' is in the Coen brothers. 'Barton Fink' and 'Raising Arizona.' Those two movies, if you look at them, that's where a lot of that comes from.
I'd done a big movie that I wasn't happy with, and I was moving out of London when I got approached about Barton Fink, because my agent said the brothers were in London. We hit it off immediately, and suddenly I found myself on the way to America!
Anything that is absurd I see as a Coen brothers' influence! The Coen brothers are my favorite people period.
The movies I respond to are by guys like the Coen brothers and Edgar Wright, where it's hard to fit them into any one box.
Barton Fink is just too self-important as an artist to get much sympathy.
Barton Fink got written very quickly, in about three weeks. I don't know what that means.
Their way of working [the Coen brothers] is always kept pretty mysterious. I was so curious to see how they make these movies. It was just such a joy - they seem to have so much fun making their movies.
'Barton Fink' owed something to Roman Polanski. As a director, he always goes beyond the obvious narrative drift.
It's so odd because I don't even know if I'm cut out for it, but being a movie star guy, I sort of end up gravitating toward the Coen brothers. That's one of the reasons my wife and I moved to L.A.: that however much of a pipe dream that would be, I moved to L.A. because I'd love to work with the Coen brothers.
The earliest influence on me was the movies of the thirties when I was growing up. Those were stories. If you look at them now, you see the development of character and the twists of plot; but essentially they told stories. My mother didn't go to the movies because of a religious promise she made early in her life, and I used to go to movies and come home and tell her the plots of those old Warner Brothers/James Cagney movies, the old romantic love stories. Through these movies that had real characters, I absorbed drama, sense of pacing, and plot.
Making movies is never going to get better than working on a Coen brothers project.
If I make two movies my entire life, and they're two movies that - whether they make a lot of money or two people go to see them - they speak of me, then I consider them incredibly successful. I don't need to be Steven Spielberg.
I obviously love 'The Grey'; that was a pleasure to make. It was also very difficult. Listen, I love 'Smokin' Aces.' That was a lot of fun to make. Completely different part of your brain, I guess. Some would argue the part that they don't want you to use.
I shot Barton Fink in July and moved out to LA that fall. The movie came out in the spring and it was a year before I got Wings.
If you call a hundred dollars but have a chance to win $10,000, those are excellent odds if you are at a table with people who have two aces or two kings. If you catch a flop you will get all their chips. I just play them because there is value.
I knew a lot about the Coen Brothers by the time I was 12 or 13.
My brothers are so amazing. My older brother Ryan, he is probably the most generous person I know in my life. He's the one that kind of helps me and guides me. All of my brothers help me to be grounded, so I really try to be like my brothers because all of them are so nice and very kind, and I look up to them.
This site uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More info...
Got it!