The Coen Brothers' hotly anticipated Burn After Reading (tentatively titled) is getting a lot of love this week. First we learned (via Yahoo) that the film, with its heavyweight cast of John Malkovich, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand, will headline the Venice Film Festival on August 27th. And today we get some new photos of these characters in what looks to be a dark comedy the likes of which only the Coens could pull off. Ready to start the hype for this year's Coen Brothers hit?



While just early eye-candy, the photos set the tone for the upcoming movie pretty clearly. Burn centers on Osbourne Cox (Malkovich), who has hit a bit of rough patch. He was recently fired from the CIA and decides to write his memoirs, naturally documenting government secrets along the way. His wife (Swinton) decides to steal the material to use in their upcoming divorce proceedings, but the CD mistakenly ends up in the hands of two doltish gym employees, Chad (Pitt) and Linda (McDormand). In response to Linda and Chad conspiring to sell the material to help pay for Linda's plastic surgery, the CIA dispatches Harry (Clooney) to sort it all out at whatever the cost.