Screentime

Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke give sexploitation cinema a queer spin in 'Drive-Away Dolls'

Writer/director Ethan Coen, left, and writer Tricia Cooke pose for a portrait to promote "Drive-Away Dolls" on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Scripts of all kinds sit in the drawers of Ethan Coen’s home, some to be returned to, some forever abandoned. When writing with his brother Joel over many years, the absurd narrative paths they’d venture down would inevitably lead to strange mental roadblocks.

“Sometimes partial scripts would stop in mysterious places,” Coen says. “‘Fargo’ we started writing many, many years before we made it and then we stopped at page 70 with ‘Carl is humping the escort.’ Then the rest of that page is blank. OK, what happens next?”