Ethan Coen, one half of the legendary directing duo the Coen Brothers, is going solo for his next feature film, an untitled project that he’s making with both Focus Features and Working Title, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.
Joel Coen directed A24 and Apple TV+’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” on his own last year without Ethan sharing billing.
No other details were available about the specifics of the project, but Coen wrote the film’s script with his wife, Tricia Cooke, and the two are also producing together with Robert Graf and Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.
Coen’s last movie, which he directed with his brother Joel, was “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” from 2018. The two had directed and written virtually all of their films together dating back to “Blood Simple” in 1984, and they’ve been behind classics like “Fargo,” “No Country For Old Men,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “The Big Lebowski” and many, many more.
While it’s unclear why Ethan and Joel did not work together on “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Ethan had said in a 2019 interview that he was “giving movies a rest” to focus on his solo play writing for the stage.
But then last year, the Coens’ longtime composer and collaborator Carter Burwell suggested that “Ethan just didn’t want to make movies anymore,” and that “Ethan seems to be very happy doing what he’s doing, and I’m not sure what Joel will do after this.” Burwell had hoped that the two of them might return to some projects and scripts that had been sitting on their shelves for years.
The deal was negotiated by UTA on behalf of Coen.
