Tom Waits cast in upcoming Coen Brothers film 'The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs'
It was recently announced that Joel and Ethan Coen‘s project The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs, which was originally announced as a television series, is now going to be a feature film. The upcoming movie is set to be released on Netflix before the end of the year, along with a theatrical run so it can qualify for the Oscars, and among its cast is Tom Waits in a yet-to-be-specified role. Here’s what the Coen Brothers had to say about the film, via Variety:
“We’ve always loved anthology movies, especially those films made in Italy in the Sixties which set side-by-side the work of different directors on a common theme. Having written an anthology of Western stories we attempted to do the same, hoping to enlist the best directors working today. It was our great fortune that they both agreed to participate.”
The film focuses on six different stories about life on the American frontier, and in addition to Waits, will feature Tim Blake Nelson in the title role, as well as Zoe Kazan and Liam Neeson. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, who previously collaborated with the Coen Brothers on Inside Llewyn Davis, shot the film with a digital Arri Alexa camera, marking it the first all-digital film production for the Coens.
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs will be making its world premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival in August, alongside other noteworthy films like Damien Chazelle‘s First Man, Alfonso Cuaron‘s Roma, the remake of Suspiria (which features a score by Thom Yorke), and more. The full Venice Film Fest competition lineup can be found here.
In other Waits news, his Asylum Records era albums — Closing Time, The Heart Of, Nighthawks at the Diner, Small Change, Foreign Affairs, Blue Valentine, and Heartattack and Vine — are all part of a vinyl and CD remastered reissue campaign happening this year.
