Ethan Coen is going on a road trip without his brother for his next film. Instead, he will team up with Focus Features and Working Title to direct an untitled road trip film that has been in the works for years. Plot details and other details are currently under wraps, but Coen will be accompanied by his wife Tricia Cooke who co-wrote the screenplay and is producing the film with him. Filming is slated to begin this summer.
Despite the lack of information The Hollywood Reporter notes that it appears to be based on a screenplay written by Coen and Cooke in the mid-2000s. The premise was a lesbian road trip action sex comedy that brings the two main characters into contact with a series of strange events on a journey from Philadelphia to Miami. In the script, a party girl and her introverted, stuffed shirt friend make the most of their trip to Florida, visiting bars along the way, bumping into a bitter ex-girlfriend and discovering a severed head in a hat box à la Se7en. To top it off, the script also contained a mystery involving a briefcase and an evil senator, and it was set to be directed by him Gas Food Accommodation director Allison Anders. It’s unclear how the film has changed since then, but it sounds completely wild.
For the project, Coen will be reunited with one of himself and his brother Joel Coen‘s typical producers Robert Graf. Graf has been a part of many of the Coen brothers’ biggest hits and was even involved with Joel’s first solo project The Tragedy of Macbeth. Also on board as producers Tim Bewan and Eric Fellner for working title.
With the solo outing, Ethan is following in his brother Joel’s footsteps. The other half of the famous sibling filmmakers took the Oscar nominee’s helm alone The Tragedy of Macbeth for Apple TV+, marking the first time either had written and directed a separate project. Together, the Coen brothers’ brand has been a hallmark of quality for films over the years, with the two creating masterpieces The big Lebowski, Fargoand No country for old men. The latter film has won three Academy Awards alone, including Best Picture at the 2008 show. Their last film together was the 2018 Western anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs for Netflix.
This untitled project marks a return of sorts for Ethan, who seemed content to spend some time away from the big screen. Carter Burwellthe principal composer for the work of the Coen brothers, spoke to the podcast Result last year about the duo’s filmmaking split, saying that Ethan’s interest in filmmaking has waned significantly. In a previous interview with Collider, Burwell explained that Coen’s interests lie elsewhere outside of filmmaking. It seems Coen still has ideas he’d like to bring to life on the big screen.
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https://collider.com/ethan-coen-tricia-cooke-solo-untitled-road-trip-movie/ Ethan Coen’s next film is with his wife Tricia Cooke, not his brother Joel