We know that the world of Netflix has been buzzing in recent weeks due to a broad cost-cutting drive, and for some time there has been a mandate to reduce auteur-driven productions in the realm of original films, steering toward offerings more tied to algorithms and more generalist. A piece of news arrives that only partly contradicts this strategy, because we are talking about an auteur film that was already completed with other financing: Netflix has bought the distribution rights, but it is worth discussing because it is a film by Joel Coen, written also with his brother Ethan: Jack of Spades.
Joel Coen’s Jack of Spades unlocks with Netflix, we’ll see it in 2027
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen made in 2018 for Netflix a film that the author considers one of their best: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (three Oscar nominations: costumes, song, and original screenplay). It was the period when the streaming giant had loosened its purse strings to prove that all cinema, auteur and non-auteur, could move to the platform. That policy has almost entirely evaporated, if not for exceptions such as The New Adventures of Cliff Booth by David Fincher (who, however, did not renew his Netflix contract). In the meantime, Joel Coen, after signing the sought Macbeth for Apple TV+, returns to those shores for the distribution of his Jack of Spades: not much is known about the film, except that it depicts “intrigue and betrayal in the Scottish Highlands“, based on the novel “The Alien: A Story of Middle Age” by Frederica Montrésor. Written by Joel with Ethan, Eleanor Catton and Conor McPherson, produced with seasoned collaborators such as Bruno Delbonnel (cinematography) and Carter Burwell (music), it stars Patsy Ferran, Josh O’Connor, Damian Lewis and Lesley Manville. It is worth noting that Netflix is only spending to distribute the feature, which as we already knew was actually completed in 2025 and was looking for an audience: it will find one in autumn 2027, also in cinemas, just before arriving on the platform.
The paths of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen have drifted apart for some years: while Joel devoted himself to his Macbeth, Ethan conceived a lesbian B-movie trilogy, so far composed of Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don’t.
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