The Coen brothers are nearing deals with a cast for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, according to The Tracking Board.
The six-part TV series has Tim Blake Nelson (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk), James Franco (Why Him?), Zoe Kazan (Our Brand is Crisis) and more attached.
Nelson would play the titular character in his segment, titled “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”. Described as a singing cowboy, Nelson last tuned up with the Coens for O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Franco, Stephen Root (Get Out), and Ralph Ineson (The Huntsman Winter’s War) could feature in another segment called “Near Algodones” about a drifter who fails with robbery and driving cattle. Root was directed by one or both of the Coens on O Brother, The Ladykillers and No Country for Old Men.
Kazan could star in “The Girl Who Got Rattled,” where she would be stuck with two trail bosses in a wagon train. She needs the help of one and is a marriage prospect for the other.
Finally, Tyne Daly (Spider-Man: Homecoming) would feature in “The Mortal Remains” about five passengers on a stagecoach with a mysterious destination.
The two other segments include “Meal Ticket,” which is about an actor and the manager of a traveling show, and “All Gold Canyon” which features a prospector finding a gold seam and a thief to go with it. There is no casting information for those segments at this time.
The Coen brothers have yet to make their foray into TV after 17 directorial efforts. Their last feature, Hail, Caesar!, was released last year.
There’s no word on when Buster Scruggs will be seen, but principal photography takes place in New Mexico from later this month to the end of September.
