DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS (2023): Focus Features Picks Up Ethan Coen’s Latest Quirky Film

Focus Features to Release Ethan Coen’s Latest Film

Ethan Coen has a new star-studded film, Drive-Away Dolls, and Focus Features has picked up the rights to the movie which should release this fall.

Ethan Coen has collaborated on an upcoming picture with his wife, Tricia Cooke. This movie is called Drive-Away Dolls. And, anybody who knows Coen’s work from when he made movies with his brother, Joel, Ethan is sure to be adding another offbeat movie to his distinguished career. Focus Features and Working Title have the film set to release early this fall on September 22nd.

A cast of several high-profile stars is attached to Drive-Away Dolls. Margaret Qualley, Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Beanie Feldstein, and Colman Domingo will be joining Bill Camp and Geraldine Viswanathan in the upcoming film. This picture will center on a road trip which goes haywire when a couple of young folks’ lives become intertwined with those of some major criminals. While the Coen Brothers have a history of making great movies together, this film is the opportunity for Ethan Coen to carry his own weight as a movie director.

Margaret Qualley recently received excellent reviews for her work in the independent 2022 A24 picture, Stars at Noon. That movie’s intensity helped propel her performance in that picture to one of the year’s most underappreciated female turns. Qualley’s brave performance there will certainly have made her fans wonder what her next role is going to be like. Pedro Pascal appeared with Nicolas Cage in the enjoyable The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent while Matt Damon, of course, is currently appearing in the acclaimed Ben Affleck picture, Air. Beanie Feldstein and Colman Domingo have had recent success with offbeat movies similar in spirit to Drive-Away Dolls. Feldstein won over the younger crown with her turn in 2019’s Booksmart while Domingo made a splash in 2021’s summer independent gem, Zola.

Joel Coen made his own movie in 2021 with The Tragedy of Macbeth which landed Denzel Washington an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Ethan is now doing his own thing as well and the results will be interesting to see.

Focus Features is a label which specializes in the best of independent cinema from high-profile voices. They have released successful pictures by Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola Paul Schrader and Paul Thomas Anderson, to name a few. They also released one of the Coen Brothers’ big hits, Burn After Reading. It is only appropriate for Drive-Away Dolls to come under the studio label as well.

The Coen Brothers are the masterminds behind films which have been deemed classics such as Blood Simple, Fargo, and No Country for Old Men. They have multiple Academy Award nominations under their belt. Can Ethan Coen stand on his own two feet with Drive-Away Dolls? That would be a pretty safe bet given the high quality of the cast and Ethan Coen’s past filmography. He’s half of a legendary film-making team and his latest should do very well on the art house circuits.

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