As we reported some months ago, the Coen Brothers were taking their first step into the world of television - well, beyond 'Fargo' anyway - with a Netflix series known as 'The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs', an anthology Western with the likes of Tim Blake Nelson, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson and James Franco.

Well, as it turns out, it isn't a Netflix series at all - but a Netflix movie that now looks set to throw itself right into the middle of the Oscar race. In a press release sent to media today, Netflix announced 'The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs' as a movie and debuting at the Venice International Film Festival. There's no word yet on a trailer or how it was that the Coens began with a series and ended up with a movie, but the release stated that the anthology movie contains the same chapters as had been written by the Coens.

The Venice Film Festival opens on August 29th, and it's understood 'The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs' will arrive on the streaming service at some stage before the end of the year with a requisite theatrical run in the US needed for it to qualify for the Oscars.