Joel Coen is heading back to Netflix. After taking his 2021 “The Tragedy of Macbeth” to A24, the filmmaker is bringing his latest solo directorial outing back to Netflix, where he last teamed with brother Ethan Coen on the 2018 release “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” Rest assured, however, while Ethan is not sharing directing duties with his big brother again, he did co-write the film‘s script alongside Joel, novelist and screenwriter Eleanor Catton, and playwright and screenwriter Conor McPherson.
The new film is called “Jack of Spades,” and the streamer will give it a theatrical release in the fall of 2027 ahead of its debut on Netflix. The film is based on Frances Frederica Montrésor’s 1901 novel “The Alien: A Story of Middle Age” and its official logline reads: “A sinister gothic mystery filled with intrigue and betrayal set in the atmospheric Scottish Highlands.”
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The film will star Olivier Award winner Patsy Ferran, BAFTA nominee and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor, BAFTA nominee and Golden Globe winner Damian Lewis, and Oscar nominee Lesley Manville.
The book itself is billed as “a thoughtful pick for readers who enjoy character-driven fiction with a touch of wanderlust and a battle between integrity and longing.” Montrésor’s novel follows Esther Mordaunt, “now well into her thirties by the story’s start” and “follows her evolving bond with Jasper, a traveler with a vivid past and a talent for storytelling. Through his tales of sailing, revolutions, and distant lands, the book explores how a single life can stretch across time, risk, and longing without losing its humanity.”
Coen will also reunite with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) and composer Carter Burwell (“Fargo,” “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”). The film will be produced by Robert Graf, Frances McDormand, Coen, Steven Rales, Graham Broadbent, and Pete Czernin, and executive produced by Donald MacKinnon.