Perhaps it was all a ruse? A few months ago, while Joel Coen was gearing up for the release of his solo directing debut, The Tragedy of Macbeth, we learned that his brother and usual directing partner, Ethan Coen, was retiring from making movies. Instead, he would focus on writing for the stage and other projects. Well, he’s getting back behind the camera, and just like his brother, Ethan will be flying solo.
THR reports Ethan Coen is joining with Focus Features and Working Title to direct an untitled lesbian road trip movie, based on a script he co-wrote with wife Tricia Cooke. Details are slim, but it appears to be based on a screenplay Coen and Cooke wrote in the mid-200s, a Russ Meyer-inspired sex action comedy about a party girl who hits the road with her buttoned-up friend from Philadephia to Miami, encountering strange characters along the way. Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging) was originally tapped to direct, but obviously, that never happened.
With such a long gap, the film has to have undergone some serious revisions to not be outdated. Just how far those rewrites go is unclear, but no matter what this is a pretty big deal. Assuming both Coens keep going with their solo careers, we could be getting twice as much content from them as we had before. Unlike Joel’s Macbeth, however, it doesn’t seem that Ethan is aiming for awards season right out of the gate.
