John Turturro has a fairly long history of playing unusual characters. Whether Bernie Bernbaum in Barton Fink, Pete in O Brother Where Art Thou? or even the butler Emilio in Mr. Deeds, one of the strengths of Turturro's ouevre has been the ability to imbue his roles with an offbeat, disconcerting air.
Turturro's character in The Big Lebowski might be the apex of that. Despite appearing for barely five minutes in the film, 'the Jesus' has gone straight into film history. Now, he's getting his own film, as a distributor has been found and a release date of 2020 set for The Jesus Rolls.
The film's blurb describes it as "A trio of misfits whose irreverent, sexually charged dynamic evolves into a surprising love story as their spontaneous and flippant attitude towards the past or future backfires time and again, even as they inadvertently perform good deeds."
Bobby Cannavale and Audrey Tatou will star alongside Turturro, and while the Coen Brothers - who wrote and directed The Big Lebowski - will not take part in the film, they have given it their blessing.
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"They're my friends, close friends, and were supportive when I said I wanna explore this character more," Turturro told Variety. "They said, you gotta do it cause we're not doing it! If I have something to show, I show it to them if they're around."
"It's a bit of a racy movie," Turturro explained.
"It shows how stupid men are. That's what the movie is kinda about - the women are the stronger, more together characters.
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"I had to tweak it a little bit but now I feel really good about it. It's basically an exploration of Jesus getting out of jail [after he is framed as a paedophile]. It's a comedy but a very human comedy.
"I started playing around with it and I thought we could be onto something with his irony and the irreverence of the character," said Turturro in 2016, in reference to his character.
"It feels like a good time to release a transgressive film about the stupidity of men who try and fail and try better to understand and penetrate the mystery of women.
"I look forward to working with Screen Media and bringing our work and the character of the Jesus to American audiences."
Featured Image Credit:Topics: TV and Film, US Entertainment