Writing/Directing Siblings : “THE SO AND SO BROTHERS”

Le Anne Lindsay, Editor Originally posted 6/21/2020

Where most siblings grow up and go their separate ways; making or breaking their careers with other collaborators they meet along the way or forging a path alone – it seems the ones that put their heads together have a better chance of being very successful. I always wished that me and one of my sisters or brother had tried to work together and grab some glory as a team; particularly as we all in different ways, have more than a passing interest in the entertainment industry. Unfortunately, there just doesn’t seem to be that spark or belief enough in one another to go it side by side. But it did spark an interest in me to keep a running list of brothers (and I may add other sibling pairings) where instead of sibling rivalry, opted for family partnerships:

The Coen Brothers: Joel & Ethan – The Coen Brothers’ films all have that Coen Brothers feeling – notably eccentric, ironic, darkly comic, and often violent. The duo most often write, direct and produce their films jointly. Although, they have written a number of films they did not direct, like the Angelina Jolie directed biographical war drama Unbroken and the critically acclaimed thriller Bridge of Spies.

The brothers grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis raised in an academic household, mother an Art Historian, father an Economics Professor. Joel became the film student where Ethan studied philosophy.

In 1984 the brothers wrote and directed Blood Simple, their first commercial film together.

When asked about lack of diversity in their movies: ” you can only write what you can write. If the question is whether or not there should be more people involved in the process, with more diverse backgrounds, so that what they write reflects a greater amount of diversity — that the business itself should be more open to people of different backgrounds, so that those stories come in — that’s a legitimate thing to talk about. The other thing is crazy. “

What’s your favorite Cohen Brother Movie?

Raising Arizona (1987)
Barton Fink (1991)
Fargo (1996)
The Big Lebowski (1998) which by the way was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Burn After Reading (2008)
A Serious Man (2009)
True Grit (2010)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Click HERE for a list of Coen Brother Awards & Nominations

The Farrelly Brothers: Peter & Bobby – The Princes of idiotic humor. Not really my bag, with the possible exceptions of Hall Pass and There’s Something About Mary. Still, these bros became undeniably successful. And basically made Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz household names.

Growing up in Rhode Island, sons of a medical doctor and nurse, neither boy had thoughts of writing or making movies. Peter majored in accounting and Bobby engineering. They claim they were horrible at both respectively, and felt they had nothing to lose when they headed out west. In fact, once asked in an interview, “Why you guys?” They responded, “Because we tried.” They’d already failed at other things and weren’t afraid of more failure at that point. Peter said, if everyone in Rhode Island who wanted to be a Hollywood writer had gone and tried, he’s almost positive they wouldn’t have been the ones on top, but most people are afraid to try.

Now, personally I think this is rather an over simplification, as there are a lot of people who reach for their dreams and fall flat on their faces, but on the other hand, there is a school of thought that the Universe rewards those who step out on faith with very little expectation.

What’s your favorite Farrelly Brother Movie?

Dumb & Dumber (1994)
Kingpin (1996)
There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Me, Myself, & Irene (2000)
Osmosis Jones (2001)
Shallow Hall (2001)
Stuck on You (2003)
Fever Pitch (2005)
The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
Hall Pass (2011)
The Three Stooges (2012)
Dumb & Dumber To (2014)

The Russo Brothers: Joe & Anthony – best known for directing four films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) : Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Endgame grossed over $2.798 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time.

The brothers are only one year apart in age, Anthony just having turned 50 this year. In interviews Joe is definitely dominate, his answers seem to come more readily than Anthony’s, but they’ve developed a natural rhythm of Joe answering like two questions in a row and then with an easy flow sits back and lets Anthony field one, but never do they contradict one another or seem to want to both answer the same question. Very much one brain. I would love to see that in action on set. Who actually calls “Action”? They were asked something similar in one interview, but just said they’ve worked out a easy rapport on set. And during the writing process they say they will sit in a room for hours dissecting characters and story arcs. If there’s a difference of opinion the best idea wins.

The Russo brothers grew up in Cleveland Ohio to parents of Italian decent, grandparents having been immigrants from Sicily. Both Comic book readers, Dungeon Masters, and Anthony a huge Hobbit/ Lord of the Rings fan, it’s no wonder they ended up at Marvel where mythology and archetypes reign supreme. However, neither brother figured on being filmmakers. Joe an English Major and Anthony Business then English.

Nevertheless, their passion for watching and discussing movies as kids, followed them into adulthood. Hearing that Robert Rodriguez supposedly made his film El Mariachi for 7K sparked in both men an idea of setting down the path of filmmaking. Borrowing money and maxing out credit cards they made their first film, an experimental comedy about a criminal trio of brothers, called Pieces. Lucky for them their gamble paid off as Pieces got into the Slamdance Film Festival, where it just so happened Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney were in attendance and offered to produce the brother’s next film, another crime comedy Welcome to Collinwood. Soon they caught the attention of Ron Howard who was looking for a new take on the TV Sitcom, next thing you know they’re directing Arrested Development. Before long on board at Marvel.

Joe Russo studied acting in graduate school. Soderbergh convinced him it was better to concentrate on one area of show biz and as they were already clearly talented writer/directors the choice was made. However, Joe did make LGBTQ Twitter very happy when he appeared in Avengers Endgame as a gay character. His scene is during the first part of the movie where Captain America (Chris Evans) is holding a support group, Joe’s character is discussing a recent date with another man. This turns out to be the first acknowledgment of the existence of gay people in Marvel Studios’ canon of 22 films.

The Russo Brother’s now have a production company called AGBO where they’ve already had success at Netflix with Chris Hemsworth action film Extraction and are looking forward to releasing the Tom Holland driven film Cherry.

NEXT UP:

The Wachowski’s (brothers now sisters) (The Matrix Franchise)
Duplass Brothers (The Puffy Chair, Safety Not Guaranteed)
Duffer Bothers Matt & Ross (Stranger Things)
Tony Scott & Ridley Scott (separate projects)
Paul & Chris Weitz (About a Boy)
The Spierig (Jigsaw & Winchester)
Benny & Josh Safdie (Good Time & Uncut Gem)
Joel & Nash Edgerton (separate projects)
Tony Gilroy & Dan Gilroy (separate projects)
Jonathan and Josh Baker (KIN)
Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoebe – (RED & RED2)
The Sherman Brothers (American songwriting duo that specialized in musical films –Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Jungle Book )
Keith and Kenny Lucas (Judas and the Black Messiah)
The Dardenne Brothers ( Rosetta, Lorna’s Silence, The Kid with a Bike)
Adam Nee & Aaron Nee (The Lost City)