The Coen brothers could be heading back to their hometown in Minneapolis for a reunion movie eight years after their last joint film, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.”
While at Lyon’s Lumière Film Festival, where they received a career tribute, Joel and Ethan Coen revealed they have several projects in the pipeline set in Minneapolis, where they previously shot “Fargo” in 1996 and “A Serious Man” in 2009.
“We haven’t discussed it in terms of plot or narrative or what kind of movie. But we’ve discussed going back because there are certain crew people we missed,” said Ethan, sitting alongside Joel, Lumiere festival chief Thierry Fremaux (who also heads Cannes), and film journalist Didier Allouche.
“Yes, there are a couple of other stories that we’ve thought about that would take place in Minneapolis, which is where we come from. So we’ll see if they haven’t sort of germinated to the point where we would go, you know, that’s what we’re going to do next, or we’re even going to definitely do,” said Joel Coen.
Joel was responding to a challenge from Oscar-winning actor Frances McDormand, his wife of 42 years, who had playfully urged them on stage at the Lumiere ceremony to complete the unofficial trilogy that began with “Fargo” and “A Serious Man.” “I think Fran wants to see it. We’ll see if we can accommodate her,” Joel joked.
Since Netflix’s “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel went on to direct “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” starring McDormand and Denzel Washington, while Ethan made “Drive-Away Dolls” and “Honey Don’t!,” both co-written with his wife and longtime collaborator Tricia Cooke.
But the brothers said they have continued writing together and have several unproduced scripts. “We’ve written a lot of scripts that we’ve never made,” Ethan said. Joel then joked that “one of which we could not find on the computer.”
“One of the Minneapolis stories we were talking about had a main part intended for an actor who has since died. So we’re thinking, well, we’re not sure that’s going to work. That’s a consequence of aging,” Ethan said.
They also wrote a new script together while each was working on a separate film, but it now feels outdated to them. “It deals with issues in the culture that we’ve sort of moved on from, or the culture has moved on from. It feels more like a period movie now. Should we make it or shouldn’t we?” he said. “Ethan suggested they could simply introduce the film with a title card reading, ‘Sometime during the Obama administration.’ It’s almost now, but it’s not now anymore.”
Yet, the brothers aren’t looking to get overly political, even if their films are often satires. “Things like the political situation in the United States are a kind of background against which you tell stories. But the idea of literalizing it in terms of Trump specifically is probably not in our wheelhouse, in terms of how we think about a story,” Joel said.
“We don’t really think of any of our movies as commenting on America currently, or commenting on anything outside the story itself. Audiences are entitled to take our movies any way they want. Making those comparisons may be totally appropriate for an audience, but we literally don’t think about it that way,” Ethan said.
The Coens also weighed in on the changing film business, including the role of streaming platforms, which have backed some of their recent projects. Netflix produced and released “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” while Joel’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” was released theatrically by A24 before streaming on Apple TV+.
Asked about the impact of streaming on cinema, the brothers said they had mixed feelings, pointing out that their own careers had benefited from the rise of home video in the 1980s, when studios were more willing to finance independent films because they had additional ways of making money.
“In a strange way, we owe our careers to the fact that there were other formats for distribution, and they happened to be home video formats,” Joel said, adding that it would be “disingenuous” for them to oppose new distribution platforms outright.
But Joel also defended the theatrical experience, echoing his comments during the masterclass he took part with Ethan in Lyon on Friday. The worst thing you can get is somebody saying, ‘I loved your movie. I saw it on an airplane.’ It’s very discouraging,” Joel said. “This festival is all about sitting in a big room with a lot of people in the dark watching it. There’s no substitute for that. And so every filmmaker, I think, feels that way.”
He argued streamers themselves are starting to recognize the importance of theatrical releases again. “I actually think there’s a point now in which the streaming services are recognizing again the value of theatrical distribution, and my hope is that that will continue and everyone will see it as a net advantage,” Joel noted.
Asked about AI, Joel dismissed the idea that AI could take over screenwriting as “nonsense,’ but was critical of the “computer-generated images” that AI is helping create, even if helps filmmakers creating images and worlds that would otherwise be impossible.
“In a way, everything’s becoming a cartoon. Every movie is an animated movie, or it’s becoming more and more like that, especially because of things like AI and effects that are done in a computer,” he said.
Joel cited their 1990 film “Miller’s Crossing,” recalling how the opening shot of a hat blowing through the woods was created using thin wires manipulated by crew members outside the frame.
“There’s no one on earth that would do it that way now. It would be animated, and I’m quite certain that it would not be as beautiful. You do lose certain things with certain kinds of visual effects, and you would certainly lose them with AI,” he continued.
The brothers were also quizzed about the impact of the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger on filmmakers.
“The honest answer is I really don’t know how that’s all going to shake out. And I don’t know enough about the politics between who’s owning what,” Joel said, laughing nervously when he was pressed about the merger. “I do know that, obviously, the more all these companies are consolidated into one or two companies, or three companies, that’s not good. Because competition is what drives the market, but it’s also what produces opportunities for different kinds of movies.” On Paramount leadership, specifically, he said, “I don’t know about David Ellison.”