Skip to main content

Ethan Coen will direct a new movie for Focus Features

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.

Editors' Recommendations

Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
How Avengers: Infinity War’s Oscar-nominated VFX team made Thanos a movie star
Avengers Infinity War

Ahead of the 91st Academy Awards on Sunday, our Oscar Effects series puts the spotlight on each of the five movies nominated for “Visual Effects,” looking at the amazing tricks filmmakers and their effects teams used to make each of these films stand out as visual spectacles.
One of the biggest movies of all time, Marvel Studios' massive team-up feature Avengers: Infinity War surprised audiences by turning Thanos, the film's purple-skinned, digital villain, into one of its breakout stars.

Portrayed by Academy Award nominee Josh Brolin through a mix of performance-capture technology and digital animation, Thanos managed to be more than just a mad titan on a mission to eradicate half the population of the universe. The team at visual effects studios Digital Domain and Peter Jackson's Weta shared duties in bringing Thanos to life on the screen, and the end result was an impressively detailed, complicated character that held his own -- both physically and theatrically -- against the combined might of Marvel's (mostly) live-action heroes.

Read more
NFL games today: schedule, channels, live streams for December 3
Kyler Murray prepares to throw a football.

Heading into Week 13, the two best teams in the NFC are the Philadelphia Eagles (10-1) and the San Francisco 49ers (8-3). The 49ers and Eagles met in last year's NFC Championship Game in a highly-anticipated showdown. However, the Eagles knocked San Francisco quarterbacks Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson out of the game, resulting in a 31-7 blowout victory in favor of Philadelphia. With Purdy back under center, Sunday's matchup between the Eagles and 49ers should be much closer.

There are 11 NFL games scheduled for Sunday, December 3. Many teams are jockeying for playoff positions and need to win to move up in the standings. Remember that every game is available to watch on NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube TV. NFL Sunday Ticket only costs half the price for the rest of the season. Explore the NFL Week 13 schedule, channels, and live stream information below.
Los Angeles Chargers vs. New England Patriots start time, channel, and live stream

Read more
Aging rockers Kiss to let digital avatars tour instead
Rock band Kiss in concert.

Kiss during an earlier concert in Finland. Fileri/Creative Commons

Performing their final in-person concert on Saturday night at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Kiss used the encore to unveil digital avatars of themselves that will allow the legendary glam-rock band to stay on the road.

Read more