Hail, Caesar! is a 2016 period black comedy film written, produced, edited, and directed by the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. An American-British co-production, the film stars Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Channing Tatum, with Michael Gambon as the narrator. It is a fictional story that follows the real-life studio fixer Eddie Mannix (Brolin), working in the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s, trying to discover what happened to a star actor during the filming of a biblical epic.
First talked about by the Coens in 2004, Hail, Caesar! was originally to take place in the 1920s and follow actors performing a play about ancient Rome. The Coens shelved the idea until late-2013. Principal photography for the film began in November 2014 in Los Angeles, California. The film premiered at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on February 1, 2016, and was theatrically released by Universal Pictures on February 5.
Hail, Caesar! grossed $63 million worldwide on a $22 million budget and received positive reviews from critics. The film was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016, and received Production Design nominations at the 89th Academy Awards and 70th British Academy Film Awards.
Plot
In 1951 Hollywood, Eddie Mannix is head of physical production at Capitol Pictures. His duties as the studio "fixer" find him covering up for its scandalous stars, fending off twin gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker, and weighing a generous job offer from the Lockheed Corporation. When unmarried synchronized swimming actress DeeAnna Moran becomes pregnant, Mannix arranges for Moran to place her baby in foster care then discreetly adopt it, preserving her career.
Baird Whitlock, the talented but dim-witted star of the studio's major production Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ, is drugged and abducted. He awakens at a meeting of "The Future", a group of blacklisted Communist screenwriters, and is easily won over to their cause. The Future send a ransom note demanding $100,000 for Whitlock's return, which Mannix procures from the studio. He convinces Thora to withhold a story in exchange for information on singing Western film star Hobie Doyle.
Doyle has been hopelessly miscast in a sophisticated comedy of manners and, despite the efforts of director Laurence Laurentz, cannot overcome his thick Western American accent. When Laurentz requests Doyle's removal, Mannix convinces him to continue his coaching. Doyle admits to Mannix his trepidation about the role, but Mannix reassures him and confides in him about Whitlock's kidnapping.
That evening, Doyle attends the premiere of his latest Western with starlet Carlotta Valdez, as arranged by Mannix. The pair are accosted by the Thacker sisters, but Doyle spots the briefcase of ransom money, carried by musical star Burt Gurney. Mannix and Moran meet with surety agent Joseph Silverman, a trusted scapegoat for the studio, who agrees to foster Moran's child. His dependability proves immensely attractive to Moran. Doyle follows Gurney to The Future's beach house but finds only Whitlock inside. The Future have taken Gurney to rendezvous with a Soviet submarine and defect to the USSR, but lose the briefcase in the ocean. Doyle returns Whitlock to the studio as police arrive to arrest the group.
Whitlock spouts his newfound Communist beliefs to Mannix, who slaps Whitlock and orders him to "go out and be a star" and finish Hail, Caesar! The next morning, Mannix learns that Moran has married Silverman. Mannix declines Lockheed's offer, remaining at Capitol Pictures. Thora tells him that her column will reveal Whitlock won his role in an earlier picture by having sex with Laurentz, but Mannix tells her that if he exposes her source, Gurney—a Communist and recent Soviet defector—it will tarnish her reputation. Thora backs down from running the story and Mannix moves on, confident in his role in life.