Hollywood is doing just fine. Movies are making a lot of money, well at least a certain type of movie is making a lot of money. For those who don’t want to make superhero movies or big, glitzy blockbusters, there are other avenues to explore, especially in the newgolden age of television. That being the case,The Coen Brothersare making the jump to TV for the first time.
According to a report fromVariety,JoelandEthan Coen’s next script, a western calledThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is going to be turned into alimited TV series. The directing duo has teamed with Annapurna Television to produce the series, but the idea is that it will be a multi-platform project. The plan is to somehow produceBuster Scruggsfor TV but to also incorporate a theatrical release of some kind. It wasn’t made clear exactly how that would work, but that is the plan according to Variety.
It isn’t clear howJoelandEthan Coenare going to divide up directing duties forThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs, but they are going to produce the series through their Mike Zoss Productions company.Megan EllisonandAnnapurna Television’s president of television,Sue Naegleare on board the project as Executive Producers, which seems to sit fine with the brothers, even if their comment on it was a bit dry. Here is what they had to say.
“We are very excited to be working with Megan and Sue on this project.”
Details onThe Ballad of Buster Scruggsare beingkept under wraps, but it is said that it will follow six different storylines and it will be a western. According to the report, the reason it is going to be a miniseries is that the scope of it was just too much to fit into one movie. The western genre is somethingThe Coen Brothersare quite familiar with, even if they have never done a TV show before. Their most recent western effort was 2010’sTrue Grit, but their most well known is 2008’sNo Country for Old Men, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
JoelandEthan Coendefinitely aren’t the first directors to make the jump to TV recently. David O. Russell is currently working on anAmazon serieswhichJulianne MooreandRobert De Niroare going to star in. Amazon also has a series from Hollywood legendWoody AllencalledCrisis in Six Scenes.Star Wars: The Force AwakensandStar TrekdirectorJ.J. Abramsis also working on a series calledThe NixwithMeryl Streep, but he did get his start writing and producing TV, so that is a little less foreign to him. There is no word yet on whenThe Ballad of Buster Scruggsis going to air or where it will ultimately end up, but we will be sure to keep you updated as more details become available.
