Coen Brothers Tease Minneapolis Reunion Film Eight Years After 'Buster Scruggs'

Eight years after "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," Joel and Ethan Coen say they are weighing a reunion film set in their hometown of Minneapolis — though nothing is greenlit, and by their own account, nothing is even plotted yet.

The brothers revealed the plans at Lyon's Lumière Film Festival, where they received a career tribute alongside festival chief Thierry Frémaux, who also runs Cannes, and film journalist Didier Allouche. Minneapolis is where they 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," Ethan Coen said.

Joel Coen was more cautious still: "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."

Where did the idea come from?

Frances McDormand, Joel's wife of 42 years and an Oscar winner, had playfully urged them on stage at the Lumière ceremony to complete the unofficial Minneapolis trilogy begun by "Fargo" and "A Serious Man." Joel joked: "I think Fran wants to see it. We'll see if we can accommodate her."

Since the Netflix-backed "Buster Scruggs," the brothers have worked separately. Joel directed "The Tragedy of Macbeth," starring McDormand and Denzel Washington. Ethan made "Drive-Away Dolls" and "Honey Don't!," both co-written with his wife and longtime collaborator Tricia Cooke.

Yet they never stopped writing together, and they hold several unproduced scripts. "We've written a lot of scripts that we've never made," Ethan said. Joel quipped that "one of which we could not find on the computer."

One Minneapolis story carries a complication: its lead role was written for an actor who has since died. "That's a consequence of aging," Ethan said. Another joint script, written while each brother worked on a separate film, now feels dated to them — "It feels more like a period movie now," Ethan said — prompting his suggestion to open it with a title card reading "Sometime during the Obama administration."

The brothers ruled out overt political filmmaking. "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," Joel said. Ethan added that audiences are free to read their films as commentary on America, "but we literally don't think about it that way."

What does streaming change for them?

The Coens have recent credits on both sides of the divide: Netflix produced "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," while A24 released "The Tragedy of Macbeth" theatrically before it streamed on Apple TV+. Joel admitted a debt to new formats, noting their careers benefited from 1980s home video, when studios financed independent films because they had extra revenue streams.

"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, calling outright opposition to streaming "disingenuous."

Still, he defended the theatrical experience, repeating a point from the brothers' Friday masterclass in Lyon: "The worst thing you can get is somebody saying, 'I loved your movie. I saw it on an airplane.' It's very discouraging. There's no substitute for" watching with a crowd in the dark.

He argued streamers are coming round: "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."

AI and the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger

Joel dismissed the notion that AI could take over screenwriting as "nonsense," but criticized the computer-generated imagery it enables. "In a way, everything's becoming a cartoon. Every movie is an animated movie, or it's becoming more and more like that," he said.

He cited the opening shot of their 1990 film "Miller's Crossing" — a hat blowing through the woods, achieved with thin wires manipulated by crew 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," he said.

On the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger, Joel laughed nervously. "The honest answer is I really don't know how that's all going to shake out," he said, before adding: "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." Of Paramount's new leadership he offered only: "I don't know about David Ellison."

For now, the reunion film remains a germinating idea, a couple of Minneapolis stories and a widow's request from McDormand. Whether any of it reaches the screen — and in what format — is the question the brothers themselves have not yet answered.