The Coen Brothers Are Back Together for a Gothic Mystery at Netflix

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to Jack of Spades, the first film written by Joel and Ethan Coen together since The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in 2018. The streamer announced the deal on Monday, confirming an autumn 2027 cinema release ahead of the film's arrival on the platform.

Described as "a sinister gothic mystery filled with intrigue and betrayal set in the atmospheric Scottish Highlands," the film is based on Frances Frederica Montrésor's 1901 novel The Alien: A Story of Middle Age. Joel Coen directs, from a screenplay he wrote with Ethan Coen, Booker Prize-winning novelist Eleanor Catton and playwright Conor McPherson.

A cast worth the wait

Patsy Ferran leads the cast alongside Josh O'Connor, Damian Lewis and Lesley Manville, a quartet whose shelves already hold Olivier, Golden Globe, Emmy and Oscar honours or nominations.

The reunion extends behind the camera. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, who shot Inside Llewyn Davis and The Tragedy of Macbeth, returns, as does composer Carter Burwell, who has scored almost every Coen film since Blood Simple in 1984. Frances McDormand produces alongside Robert Graf and Joel Coen, with Steven Rales for Indian Paintbrush and Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin for Blueprint Pictures.

Eight years apart

The brothers have spent recent years on separate paths. Joel directed The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington and McDormand, while Ethan made the crime comedies Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don't! with his wife Tricia Cooke, as well as the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind.

Their last film together, the western anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, earned three Oscar nominations for Netflix. The brothers' films have won them four Academy Awards, three of them for No Country for Old Men.

From a 1901 novel

Montrésor's novel follows Esther Mordaunt and her evolving bond with Jasper, a traveller with a vivid past and a gift for storytelling. The adaptation moves the tale to 1880s Scotland, and Variety reports the production wrapped in Glasgow late last year.

Netflix is said to see the film as a major awards prospect for 2027. For film lovers who have missed the brothers' singular blend of darkness and wit, the wait finally has an end date.