Movies: They Ain't Heavy...

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By packing the film with eccentrics like Hanks' professor and Marlon Wayans' blue-tongued inside man, Gawain MacSam, they were able to make the film their own, but they have no interest in attempting another remake. "Movies are either bad or they're good, and you say, 'Oh, that's great,'" says Joel. "We look at our own movies and think they need to be remade," jokes Ethan. They promise, however, to make a sequel in 20 years to their largely ignored cult hit Barton Fink, to be called Old Fink, when John Turturro is old enough to play the 1940s playwright in his creepy dotage. "He's a professor at Berkeley in the Summer of Love," says Ethan. "He's sleeping with coeds. He's turned into this horrible creature with turtlenecks and medallions," says Joel. "BY POPULAR DEMAND is what the poster is going to say," says Ethan, giggling.

For guys who hate talking to the press, they're awfully good at finishing each other's sentences with jokes, and Ethan's constant laughter at Joel's wry antics makes it almost seem as if they're having fun. But these Hollywoody parts of their job are the parts they don't like. To insulate themselves from too much show-biz stuff, they work with the same small crew they have used since they made Blood Simple in 1984. They also jointly write, direct, produce and edit every film themselves, though they use a pseudonym, Roderick Jaynes, for the editing because, they say, it would be unseemly for their names to appear so many times in the credits. They claim they never fight, and they surround themselves with similarly laid-back people. "We're pretty nonconfrontational," says Joel. "Some of the crew call it Coen Brothers Summer Camp."

Part of the secret to the relaxed set is the brothers' meticulous, Hitchcockian preparation, storyboarding every scene before they begin shooting. That also makes their movies cheap, since little crew time is wasted figuring out shots. Even though they're known for beautiful cinematography--Hanks' cape being carried by the wind over the Mississippi River and onto a garbage barge is one of the memorable images from The Ladykillers--they use less film stock than most directors. When movies don't cost much, studios leave their directors alone. In fact, the one big-budget project they planned, a largely silent World War II film starring Brad Pitt called To the White Sea, was tabled by the brothers partly because the high costs would have brought in the panicky suits.

Despite all the careful prep work and their rep for being brusque and quiet, the brothers are known for being loose on the set, laughing repeatedly at their own lines of dialogue and gags. "In the movie Tom sort of does an Ed Grimley, where the house blows up and he's running up the steps," says Ethan. "One of our voices is all over the track, laughing," finishes Joel. That wasn't the only scene that had to be dubbed over in the recording studio because of Coen brother laughter. The brothers, it turns out, are most interested in amusing themselves. --Reported by Desa Philadelphia/Los Angeles