Joel and Ethan Coen Will Script Dark Web, Film About the Infamous Digital Black Market Silk Road

The Coen Brothers are going online: the ace filmmaking pair are scripting a tech-focused film called Dark Web. Fox has recruited the Coens to write the screenplay, which is based on a 2013 WIRED article written by Joshua Bearman.

The article was about Ross William Ulbricht, also known as Dread Pirate Roberts, the man who built the underground illicit marketplace called Silk Road. Silk Road was most infamously used to buy and sell weapons and illegal drugs.

Dennis Lehane wrote the first draft of the Dark Web screenplay, and it’s still unclear who will direct the film. The Coen brothers’ recent scripts have all been period pieces; Hail, Caesar!, Inside Llewyn Davis and Bridge of Spies, which the pair wrote but did not direct, all took place in the 1950s or early 1960s. Now, it looks like they’re getting a modern-day upgrade.