The Fading Gigolo Trailer Brings All Your Woody Allen–John Turturro Fanfic to Life

It seems the world (me) has been asking for a buddy comedy starring John Turturro as a middle-aged prostitute and Woody Allen as his pimp nigh on forever. But our prayers have been answered at last, in the form of Turturro’s fifth directorial feature, Fading Gigolo. Turturro and Allen have been friends dating back to at least 1986, when Turturro had a small role in Hannah and Her Sisters. Turturro’s last two films as a director were a documentary about the music scene in Naples called Passione and the musical romantic comedy Romance & Cigarettes.

In the trailer, Allen asks, “Is Mick Jagger a beautiful man?” as a rhetorical question, and I have to assume he means in the present day because clearly Mick Jagger was once one of the most beautiful men in existence. Honestly, Turturro’s not so bad-looking, either (and he also wrote the script for Fading Gigolo), but that probably has everything to do with his immense charm onscreen. Who hasn’t dreamed about a night of passion with Barton Fink, Herbie Stempel, Jesus Quintana, Coach Billy Sunday, or Pino from Do the Right Thing?

Allen acted last year in his own To Rome With Love, and before that had an uncredited guest role in Sophie Lellouche’s Allen-obsessed Paris-Manhattan as himself, but he’s been onscreen less and less in the last decade. In recent years he has often been cast as a mentor figure, and here he talks Turturro into the intimidating fantastical task of executing a successful threesome with Sharon Stone and Sofia Vergara. Woody’s bookseller turned whoremonger settles on “Dan” as a pseudonym, but I have a few other suggestions. Namely, Bishop Don Magic Woodman, Alvy Fleiss, Iceberg Danny Rose, or Dolemightyaphrodite.

Filed Under: Trailer of the Day, Trailers, Woody Allen

Molly Lambert is a staff writer for Grantland.

Archive @ mollylambert