No competition entry at the upcoming Venice Film Fest was as surprising as Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a Western anthology film to premiere in Lido and then be released by Netflix in November, at the prime of the Oscar season
Boasting a running time of 132 minutes, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is now confirmed as a single feature movie.
The project was announced in January 2017 as a “limited series” developed through Annapurna’s TV division. Netflix took the project in April 2017–the Coen brothers famously claimed: “We are streaming motherfuckers!”
“We’ve always loved anthology movies, especially those films made in Italy in the Sixties which set side-by-side the work of different directors on a common theme,” the Coens said. “Having written an anthology of Western stories we attempted to do the same, hoping to enlist the best directors working today. It was our great fortune that they both agreed to participate.”
“Buster Scruggs” reunites the Coen Brothers with their “Inside Llewyn Davis” Oscar nominated cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, who shot the film with the Arri Alexa camera–it’s the first Coen digital project.
Delbonnel earned an Oscar nomination for filming “Llewyn Davis.”
Other frequent Coen collaborators for “Scruggs” include composer Carter Burwell, production designer Jess Gonchor, and costume designer Mary Zophres.
Joel and Ethan Coen have been nominated for 14 Academy Awards, winning original screenplay for “Fargo” and best picture, director, and adapted screenplay for “No Country for Old Men.”
Their last Western, “True Grit,” was nominated for 10 Oscars.
The film is expected to debut on Netflix and to be given an awards-qualifying theatrical release later this year.
‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
