Studiocanal and the Independent Cinema Office (ICO) have announced the UK theatrical release of Blood Simple: Director's Cut, Joel and Ethan Coen’s thrilling debut feature in a stunning new 4k restoration approved by the Coen Brothers themselves.

A stylish, imaginative and hard-boiled neo noir, Blood Simple announced the Coens as vital and distinctive new cinematic voices on its release three decades ago. Possessing all the characteristics that propelled the Coens to later success – razor sharp dialogue; a predilection for lethal and futile violence; ironic, fatalistic humour; and an inventive focus on the tragicomic lives of idiosyncratic misfits.

M. Emmett Walsh is sleazy Texas private eye Visser, hired by bar owner Marty (Dan Hedaya) to kill his unfaithful wife (Frances McDormand) and her lover (John Getz). Given a plan to work from, he decides to modify it without warning; and matters quickly spiral out of control.

Beautifully shot and performed and with a haunting score by the Coens’ long-time collaborator Carter Burwell, it’s a landmark film, a trailblazing, near virtuosic debut which reinvented the noir for a new generation and marked the arrival of two filmmakers who would go on to revolutionise the American indie cinema scene.

Blood Simple: Director's Cut returns to cinemas 6 October 2017, followed by a new DVD/Blu-Ray/EST release from Studiocanal on 30 October 2017.

DVD/Blu-ray special features:

• New interview with Joel & Ethan Coen
• New interview with M Emmett Walsh
• New interview with John Getz
• Criterion interview with Frances McDormand (
• Investor trailer
• Intro by Mortimer Young

Ahead of the film’s release, a special preview screening will be held at BFI Southbank on 29 September 2017.