Joel and Ethan Coen, the film making brothers who gave us movies such as “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski” and last year’s critically acclaimed feature “True Grit,” are working on their next feature – which appears to have a folk music theme, and potentially evolves around Dave Van Ronk.

According to the Los Angeles Times movie blog, the brothers Coen are drawing source material from Dave Van Ronk’s posthumous memoir (completed by author Elijah Wald) “The Mayor of MacDougal Street.” At a Lincoln Center event, the brothers told the audience that the movie will feature music performed with a “single instrument”.

Details are scarce, but it appears that the film will be loosely based on the life story of Van Ronk, whose life and career placed him at the epicenter of the folk revival in Greenwich Village and he witnessed many of the events that lead to important social changes of the day – including the infamous Stonewall Riots. Readers of the book will certainly see the rich material that Dave’s life offers for a film. The film will likely be a fictionalized version of his story and it could evolve into a character as rich as “The Dude” from Big Libowski with the great soundtrack that accompanied “Brother, Where Art Thou?”.

UPDATE JUNE 28 – It appears that this film will NOT be about Van Ronk after all. Shortly after the above information began circulating, Entertainment Weekly ran a story that said:

““A script which the Coens are working on and might do next takes place in Greenwich Village,” a spokesperson says. Though the life of the late 1960s folk singer Dave Van Ronk was reported as a possible basis for the film, the rep says, “Dave Van Ronk is not a character in it, though [the Coens] have read his memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street for pleasure and inspiration.” “

Click here for the full story.