In an interview, for the March 2024 issue of Empire Magazine, Ethan Coen confirms that he is developing a new project with brother Joel and that it might be the next thing he works on after the release of “Drive-Away Dolls.”
The exact words Ethan uses are that he and Joel are “working on writing something” together again. Ethan does not specify what this next film with Joel might be, but they have an assortment of unproduced screenplays that they can choose from, or it could be something new.
Back in 2021, Joel released “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” a solo work. When the project was announced, Ethan’s absence was puzzling. The Coens have always worked together. In fact, before ‘Macbeth,’ they hadn’t missed a collaboration together since their 1984 debut “Blood Simple.”
Next month, Ethan’s “Drive-Away Dolls” will be in theaters — a Lesbian road movie he completed a few months back, co-written and directed with his partner Tricia Cooke. The film had its fall 2023 release delayed due to the strike, plenty of press has seen it already (including myself).
The Coens haven’t collaborated on anything new since 2018’s “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” They are one of the great living American filmmakers. To learn of a potential reunion brings me great joy.
The Coen pantheon includes the likes of “No Country For Old Men,” “Fargo,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “Barton Fink,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Miller’s Crossing,” “Raising Arizona,” and “A Serious Man” (Also, major shout out to the uber-underrated “Burn After Reading”).
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.