Nobody makes films like the Coen Brothers – the unique tone, heartfelt storytelling and singular characters they bring to their projects never feel like they could have come from anybody else. And while they were attempting a change of medium with Netflix TV project The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, it seems you can’t take that movie instinct out of Joel and Ethan. The pair’s Western anthology is no longer an episodic project – it’s now an anthology movie according to Variety, marking the brothers' 18th cinematic work and their first film since 2016’s Hail, Caesar!.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs will still come to Netflix, and it’s getting a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival later this year. It’s also expected to get some form of cinematic release to make it eligible for the Oscars, though whether the streaming service will let the film play on the big screen in the UK remains to be seen.
The plot of the six-installment series (now movie) still isn’t known, but Tim Blake Nelson stars in the lead role as the titular singing cowboy. Also in the cast across the stories are the likes of James Franco, Ralph Ineson, Zoe Kazan, Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson. While the switch of medium means we won’t get to see how the Coens’ style translates to TV, it does mean that there’s a brand new Coen Brothers movie arriving before the end of the year – which is certainly cause for celebration.
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