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Wednesday’s announcement of the 75th Venice International Film Festival competition and out-of-competition lineups had a few surprises in store, but none bigger than the one Netflix and the Coen Brothers sprung on the film community. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which up until this morning was an upcoming mini-series for Netflix, is now a feature film headed for Europe’s premier fall festival and with an eye towards Oscar season.
In January 2017, Annapurna Television announced a partnership with Joel and Ethan Coen for the brothers’ first foray into television, a multi-part mini-series winding six storylines together into one Western. Initially, the idea was going to be to try something new and daring, a hybrid of TV and theatrical distribution. But when Netflix signed on as a distributor last August, talk of a theatrical release fell by the wayside. That appears to be very much not the case now. According to a Variety report, Scruggs will be a 132-minute film that will keep a “chaptered anthology” structure. Tim Blake Nelson will play the titular Scruggs, alongside a cast that includes Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, and the previously announced James Franco (though the scandal-plagued Franco has been nowhere near the publicity announcements for the film).
The big Coens switcheroo is just the tip of the iceberg (the top of the gondola?) for Netflix when it comes to Venice. Also announced for the festival:
- 22 July (formerly titled Norway), from United 93 director Paul Greengrass, about the 2011 terrorist attacks in Oslo.
- Roma, the black-and-white semi-autobiographical film from Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuaron, which has already been announced as the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, as well as a gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival.
- The restoration of the heretofore unfinished Orson Welles film The Other Side of the Wind, which had been planned to screen at Cannes before a dispute between Netflix and the festival led Ted Sarandos to pull all Netflix’s films from Cannes consideration.
This news comes a day after Netflix films Roma, The Land of Steady Habits (the latest from director Nicole Holofcener), and the Sundance premiere The Kindergarten Teacher (starring Maggie Gyllenhaal) were announced as part of the Toronto lineup.
The parade of heavy hitters being sent into battle at the fall festivals marks the strongest push yet by Netflix, and seems to be a great indicator that the streaming giant is coming to awards season locked and loaded.
