NEW COEN BROTHERS PROJECT: Yiddish Policeman's Union

Following the success of No Country for Old Men (which made my ten best of '07 list despite a shitty ending - a deam sequence? Come on.), the Coen Brothers have announced that they'll be writing and directing a film adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel Yiddish Policeman's Union.

The novel is an alternate history detective story based on the premise that after World War II, a temporary Yiddish-speaking settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Alaska in 1941. It also incorporates the (fictional) destruction of the State of Israel in 1948 after an unsuccessful struggle for independence. It takes place in a fictionalized version of the real city of Sitka.

"Against this backdrop is a noir-style murder mystery in which a rogue cop investigates the killing of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy who might be the messiah." Hmm, a noir-style murder mystery set in the snow, what does this remind you of...

It's hard to go wrong with the Coen Brothers and though I haven't read the book, Chabon's other novel Wonder Boys was a solid read. At the very least, it's nice to see Jews finally getting to make movies. They've gone underrepresented in Hollywood for too long.