Netflix
James Franco in "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs."
- Netflix has released the first trailer for its anticipated original film from the Coen Brothers, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs."
- The Western film was originally conceived as a six-episode Netflix original miniseries, but the Coens cut it together into one feature film and premiered it at the Venice Film Festival in August.
- "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" debuts on Netflix and in select theaters on November 16.
Netflix on Wednesday released the first trailer for its anticipated original film from the Coen Brothers, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs."
Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, the Western film features an anthology of stories, and was originally conceived as a six-episode miniseries. The Coens reportedly "decided instead to jam the episodes" into one feature film before screening it at the Venice Film Festival in August.
"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" stars James Franco, Liam Neeson, Zoe Kazan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Tom Waits in an ensemble cast.
The Coens told reporters at Venice that the material for the film originated from stories they wrote over a period of 25 years.
"We would write these short stories and not really know what to do with them and put them in a drawer," Joel Coen said. "Then we decided to make them all together."
The film has a 94% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from the 17 critics who saw it in Venice.
"Richly entertaining and blackly funny but told with sincerity and heart, the half-dozen Western tales packed into 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' show the Coen brothers loading up their six-shooter and firing barely a blank," Philip De Semlyen wrote in a review for Time Out.
"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" debuts on Netflix and in select theaters on November 16.
Watch the trailer below: