Sources close to John Turturro’s Going Places have confirmed some weird and exciting news for us: the film, a remake of a French sex farce, is actually a Big Lebowski spin-off centered around Turturro's Jesus Quintana character.

Not only that, but the project has already begun filming with a script by Turturro and a cast that includes Bobby Cannavale, Audrey Tautou and Susan Sarandon.

The film, which currently has no distributor (thus making it an indie in the realest sense), takes its plot from the 1974 comedy Les Valseuses: two petty thieves, Turturro’s Jesus and Cannavale’s Petey, compete to give a woman (Tautou) her first orgasm after she’s roped into their hijinks. Sarandon also ends up in their company, playing a criminal who just got out after a long stint in prison.

I’m told Going Places is a week or two into production out in New York State. What brought The Jesus out east, I wonder? Does he still bowl? What has he been up to since 1998? Your guess is as good as mine, but here's what I know for sure: his off-beat hair choices and proclivity for purple both remain firmly intact. That’s really all that matters here.

Joel & Ethan Coen aren’t creatively involved, apparently, and while one might not expect them to sign off on a sequel, keep in mind that Turturro's work with them dates all the way back to Miller’s Crossing in 1990. They even poured money into Romance & Cigarettes, Turturro’s 2005 musical featuring Cannavale and Sarandon, so it’s not hard to believe they’d give him their blessings. Turturro has been talking about reprising the role for quite some time, and a French sex comedy re-structured around Quintana is one hell of an angle. The original was, as I understand it, incredibly sexist even for 1974 (Roger Ebert called it “the most misogynistic movie [he could] remember”), so I’m curious to see how they combine that with The Jesus’ absurd brand of machismo.

Nostalgia is the new Hollywood A-lister, isn't it? It seems like the only sure thing in a sea of new media, and it’s led to the mining of every beloved property by a handful of studios. Second only is the trend of foreign film adaptations, churned out with no care for context. A combination of the two might seem like nightmare fuel to any self-professed cinephile, but it's a horse of a different colour when you're talking about a non-studio passion project. Case in point: Coen darling Turturro using this remake as a comeback tour for The Jesus.

Anyway, we’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

The official synopsis reads: “John Turturro plays Jesus Quintana in ‘Going Places,’ a film about a trio of misfits whose irreverent, sexually charged dynamic evolves into a surprising love story as their spontaneous and flippant attitude towards the past or future backfires time and again, even as they inadvertently perform good deeds. When they make enemies with a gun-toting hairdresser, their journey becomes one of constant escape from the law, from society and from the hairdresser, all while the bonds of their outsider family strengthen.”

One of the big questions on the minds of Coen brothers fans is when John Turturro’s “Going Places” will be released in theaters. The film is a sequel to the brothers’ 1998 classic “The Big Lebowski” that focuses on Turturro’s breakout character, Jesus Quintana. “Going Places” was filmed back in 2016 but has yet to make its debut. Turturro recently teased to The Independent that editing the film took longer than expected but he’s now happy with a cut of the movie after making some tweaks.

“It’s a bit of a racy movie,” Turturro teased about “Going Places.” “It shows how stupid men are. That’s what the movie is kinda about – the women are the stronger, more together characters. I had to tweak it a little bit but now I feel really good about it. It’s basically an exploration of Jesus getting out of jail. It’s a comedy but a very human comedy.”

Turturro revealed in summer 2017 that “Going Places” kicked off with Jesus getting out of jail after being framed as a pedophile. Turturro wrote the film as a riff on Bertrand Blier’s sexually-charged 1974 French movie of the same name. New characters are played by Audrey Tautou and Bobby Cannavale.

An official synopsis for “Going Places” released in October 2016 said the film is about “a trio of misfits whose irreverent, sexually charged dynamic evolves into a surprising love story as their spontaneous and flippant attitude towards the past or future backfires time and again, even as they inadvertently perform good deeds.

Turturro told The Independent he made the sequel with the full support of Joel and Ethan Coen. “They’re my friends, close friends, and were supportive when I said I wanna explore this character more,” he said. “They said, you gotta do it cause we’re not doing it! If I have something to show, I show it to them if they’re around.”

The writer-director-actor said “Going Places” will be “much more sexual” than “The Big Lebowski,” which is one reason Turturro might’ve taken so long to finish it since the subject matter appears a bit more controversial. The film skipped out on Sundance earlier this year despite buzz it might debut in Park City. No release plans for “Going Places” have been announced, but at this point a fall film festival debut seems likely.

John Turturro’s “Big Lebowski” spinoff, “The Jesus Rolls,” which follows his “Lebowski” character Jesus Quintana, is scheduled to hit theaters in early 2020.

Screen Media purchased the rights to the film, which Turturro directed from his own script. “Jesus Rolls” also stars Bobby Cannavale and Audrey Tautou and features Jon Hamm, Susan Sarandon and Pete Davidson.