The Coen Brothers Reunite for Jack of Spades, a Gothic Mystery at Netflix
The Coens are back together, and the Highlands are in trouble.
Joel and Ethan Coen are officially working together again. Netflix has picked up Jack of Spades, a gothic mystery directed by Joel Coen and co-written by both brothers, and it plans to put the movie in theaters in fall 2027 before it hits the streaming service later that year (Collider).
It's the first time the brothers have shared a screenplay credit on a new movie since The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in 2018, which was also a Netflix release.
What is Jack of Spades about?
Netflix describes it as "a sinister gothic mystery filled with intrigue and betrayal" set in the Scottish Highlands. The movie is based on The Alien: A Story of Middle Age, a 1901 novel by Frances Frederica Montrésor that most moviegoers have never heard of, which makes it a very Coen choice.
Patsy Ferran plays Esther Mordaunt, the woman in her thirties at the center of the story, according to World of Reel. The screenplay started with novelist Eleanor Catton and playwright Conor McPherson before the Coens worked on it (World of Reel).
Who is in the cast of Jack of Spades?
Josh O'Connor leads the cast with Ferran, Damian Lewis and Lesley Manville. O'Connor has been on a huge run lately with Challengers and La Chimera, so landing a Coen movie fits right in. World of Reel also reports that Frances McDormand has a small role, though that hasn't been confirmed.
Behind the camera, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel and composer Carter Burwell are both back with Joel Coen. Burwell has scored nearly every Coen movie since Blood Simple in 1984.
Why did the Coens work apart for so long?
They took a few years off from working together. After Buster Scruggs, Joel made The Tragedy of Macbeth on his own in 2021, while Ethan made the comedies Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don't! with his wife, Tricia Cooke. Fans spent years wondering if the duo behind Fargo and No Country for Old Men would ever team up again.
My read is that this is one of the best movie announcements of the year for anyone who loves weird, sharp crime stories. A dark mystery in the Scottish Highlands sounds like a perfect playground for Joel's Macbeth-style visuals and the brothers' strange sense of humor. The fall 2027 theater run is a nice bonus too. (Someone in this movie is definitely getting a bad haircut.)
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Header image and in-article image are official stills from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, from Netflix.
