Half of the celebrated filmmaking duo The Coen Brothers, Ethan Coen is going solo to direct a lesbian road trip film based on a script he co-wrote with his wife Tricia Cooke. The Coen Brothers had been making films together since their adolescence in the 60s, releasing their first feature, Blood Simple, in 1984 to early acclaim, and collaborating together on projects up until 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It was only last year that Ethan quit filmmaking to focus on playwriting, and his brother Joel made The Tragedy of Macbeth alone.
Ethan’s retirement seems to be short-lived. The Hollywood Reporter details that the not-yet-titled road trip film is based on a script initially written in the mid-2000s, and is a “Russ Meyer-inspired action sex comedy.” The story follows a party girl and her more straitlaced friend on a trip from Philadelphia to Miami, cruising bars and encountering classic Coen oddities like a nefarious senator, a severed head in a hatbox, a mysterious briefcase, and a jilted ex-girlfriend.
Various actors had been attached to the project over the years, including Holly Hunter, Selma Blair, Christina Applegate, and Chloe Sevigny, but no cast is confirmed at this time. The project is being made with Focus Features and Working Title and is gearing up to film this summer. Like fellow filmmaker Steven Soderbergh who “retired” for barely three years, Ethan Coen can’t seem to stay away from the siren song of filmmaking and the only question remains is how will his solo outing compare to his collaborations with his brother?
Source: THR
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