Intolerable Cruelty is a movie that has been in the works for nearly 8 years. “Luckily the material is timeless”, says writer director Joel Cohen in a recent interview.

“My brother Ethan and I originally did it as a writing job for a Hollywood production company and languished at the studio for a while”, explains Joel about the long delay from page to screen. “Then it came back to us about a year ago and George Clooney expressed some interest in doing it. It was that combination that got us interested in directing it ourselves”.

As for the story and the setting, “at face value it’s a comedy about lawyers” explains Joel. “Los Angeles and the culture of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills are significant part of the idea or the comedy”.

“Like a lot of screwball comedies, Intolerable Cruelty it’s about rich people”, continues the eldest of the two Cohen brothers. “so not just in terms of photography but in terms of the set dressing, wardrobe, every aspect, it’s all very high-end”.

The fact that it’s star-driven Hollywood comedy might be seen as somewhat of a departure for Joel and Ethan Cohen, whose previous work includes Barton Fink, Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, among other popular movies.

“It’s more of a “glam” thing than certainly we’ve ever done before”, says Ethan in the same interview. “For us, it’s trying something a little bit different but I wouldn’t call it unique exactly”.

The introduction of Hollywood glamour is not the only departure for Joel and Ethan on this movie. Usually known for casting from stable of returning actors, the circumstances of this script also dictated that the casting process be a bit out of the ordinary.

“In almost every other movie we’ve ever done, we had particular actors in mind when we wrote the parts”, explains Joel. “Since we didn’t write this originally as something we were going to do ourselves, that wasn’t the case here”.

With the exception of George Clooney, Richard Jenkins and Billy Bob Thornton, the other actors are new to a Coen brother’s production.

“That’s actually been one of the pleasures of doing a movie like Intolerable Cruelty, admits Joel. “Its been an opportunity to work with a new people”.

Although it wasn’t written for him, the part of Miles Massey seemed a natural for George Clooney. In the traditional romantic comedy style, he walks the line between romantic lead and comedic lead.

“George decided that his character is a descendent of the guy Everett McGill he played in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, says Ethan. “He’s king of glib and taken with himself”.

“Everett was all about air” observes Joel Coen in comparing the two characters. “Miles -is all about teeth. So he’s always getting his teeth cleaned and checking his teeth-which made me laugh a lot”.

The Coen brothers chose Catherine Zeta-Jones to play Clooney’s leading lady because she is exactly that.

“She is stunning and she just lights up a room”, they say.

“I think the chemistry between George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones worked from the beginning to the end of the move”, explains Ethan Coen. “They’re romantics, and they sort of get together because a mutual distrust. From the moment these two people meet, they’re on different sides of the wall, but there is an anticipation that these people have get together. Each wants to outdo the other, and it lends itself to a wonderful banter that goes on between of them. That’s what’s attractive in this cat-mouse game that goes on with them”.

This “flat-out comedy”, as Joel describes it, takes place in Los Angeles, the Mecca of glitz and glamour.

“You can tell this story elsewhere”, he explains, “but I think it would be quite different, because the movie is informed by attitudes and a lifestyle which are particular to Los Angeles: a place where, as you may know, love is in the air 365 days a year”.