Ethan Coen will direct a new movie for Focus Features

By Blair Marnell April 4, 2022

For decades, the Coen brothers were inseparable filmmakers who left an indelible impact on the movie industry. But last year, Joel Coen went solo to direct Denzel Washington in the Oscar-nominated film, The Tragedy of Macbeth. Now, Ethan Coen is also going out on his own with a film that has been in the works for years.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Focus Features and Working Title have reached a deal with Ethan Coen to helm an untitled movie that he co-wrote with his wife, Tricia Cooke. Coen and Cooke will produce the film with Robert Graf, Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner.

According to THR, “sources indicate that the untitled feature is a lesbian road trip project that Coen and Cooke initially wrote in the mid-2000s.” Allison Anders was slated to direct the project at one point before she ultimately left the project. An earlier version of the script followed “a party girl who takes a trip from Philadelphia to Miami with her buttoned-up friend. Along the way, they cruise the bars and encounter, among other obstacles, a severed head in a hatbox, a bitter ex-girlfriend, a mystery briefcase, and an evil senator.” However, THR’s report indicates that the script has evolved since its initial inception.

Ethan Coen at Rome Film Fest 2019. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Coen brothers are two of the most successful directors in the last four decades. Their professional career began in 1984 with Blood Simple, and they went on to make several films together including Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country For Old Men, a remake of True Grit, and Inside Llewyn Davis. Collectively, they have won four Academy Awards. Their last film together was The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which was released on Netfilx in 2018.

Ethan Coen’s new film is expected to begin production this summer.

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Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…

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