The New Mexico Film Office Announces "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" to Film in New Mexico

New Mexico Film Office Director Nick Maniatis announced today that the feature length series of Westerns, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," produced by Annapurna Pictures, will begin principal photography mid-July through the end of September, largely in the Santa Fe area.

"To have filmmakers with the distinction of the Coen Brothers return for a third time is a testament to the quality of our crews, our support services, our infrastructure, our communities and our significant work to let filmmakers know they're welcome in New Mexico," said New Mexico Film Office Director Nick Maniatis.

The production will employ approximately 188 New Mexico crew members, 16 New Mexico actors and 800 New Mexico background talent.

The project is written, directed and produced by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen ("Hail, Caesar!," "Inside Llewyn Davis," "True Grit," "Burn After Reading," "No Country for Old Men," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," "The Big Lebowski," "Fargo"). Robert Graf, Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle are also producing.

"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is a feature-length omnibus consisting of six separate stories, all Westerns. The first of the six is about a singing cowboy and is the title story; the second, "Near Algodones," is about a high-plains drifter whose own fecklessness dogs his attempts at bank robbery and cattle driving; the third, "Meal Ticket," follows an actor and impresario of a traveling show; the fourth, "All Gold Canyon," is about a prospector who happily finds a gold seam but then unhappily finds an evil encroacher; the fifth, "The Gal Who Got Rattled," follows two trail bosses on the Oregon Trail and a woman on the wagon train who needs the help of one of them and who might be a marriage prospect for the other; and, lastly, "The Mortal Remains," about the five very different passengers on a stagecoach of mysterious destination.

Visit the New Mexico Film Office online at nmfilm.com