<Li> Lee Weaver as the Blind Seer, a mysterious railroad man who accurately predicts the outcome of the trio's adventure as well as several other incidents . He corresponds to Tiresias in the Odyssey . </Li> <P> The idea of O Brother, Where Art Thou? arose spontaneously . Work on the script began in December 1997, long before the start of production, and was at least half - written by May 1998 . Despite the fact that Ethan Coen described the Odyssey as "one of my favorite storyline schemes," neither of the brothers had read the epic and were only familiar with its content through adaptations and numerous references to the Odyssey in popular culture . According to the brothers, Nelson (who has a degree in classics from Brown University) was the only person on the set who had read the Odyssey . </P> <P> The title of the film is a reference to the 1941 Preston Sturges film Sullivan's Travels, in which the protagonist (a director) wants to direct a film about the Great Depression called O Brother, Where Art Thou? that will be a "commentary on modern conditions, stark realism, and the problems that confront the average man ." Lacking any experience in this area, the director sets out on a journey to experience the human suffering of the average man but is sabotaged by his anxious studio . The film has some similarity in tone to Sturges's film, including scenes with prison gangs and a black church choir . The prisoners at the picture show scene is also a direct homage to a nearly identical scene in Sturges's film . </P> <P> Joel Coen revealed in a 2000 interview that he came to Phoenix, Arizona, to offer the lead role to Clooney . Clooney agreed to do the role immediately, without reading the script . He stated that he liked even the Coens' least successful films . Clooney did not immediately understand his character and sent the script to his uncle Jack who lived in Kentucky and asked him to read the entire script into a tape recorder . Unknown to Clooney, in his recording, Jack, a devout Baptist, omitted all instances of the words "damn" and "hell" from the Coens' script, which only became known to Clooney after the directors pointed this out to him in the middle of shooting . </P>

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