The Coen Bros Remaking 'True Grit'
Filed under: Classics, Deals, Paramount, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Steven Spielberg, Remakes and Sequels, Western
Fill your hands you ... well, you know the line. You probably know this movie line by line, and your heart still leaps to see Rooster Cogburn flip that Winchester. So the news that True Grit is getting remade by Joel and Ethan Coen will either fill you with rage, excitement, or put you squarely into Swiss territory. According to Variety, the Coen Bros aren't aiming for a traditional remake -- they want to return to the original Charles Portis novel, and make a more faithful adaptation. Their version will be told from Mattie's point of view, as the original novel is, and keep Cogburn as a side player. The Coens will undoubtedly amp up the Biblical tone and include the darker elements ... like what really happens to her after the snakebite.
Plans to remake True Grit have apparently been in the works for some time -- it originally begun at DreamWorks, but was left behind when Steven Spielberg and his shingle split with Paramount. Undaunted by the task, the Coens are tackling it before their adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union.
So, what else can you say? It's the Coen Bros, who will undoubtedly tackle a period Western as ably as they did a modern, revisionist one. On the other hand, it's John Wayne. It's the movie he won his only Oscar for. Do you dare touch it? I'm veering somewhere between neutral and excited myself, while simultaneously praying I don't live long enough to see anyone remake The Outlaw Josey Wales.
*By the way, did you know True Grit's screenwriter, Marguerite Roberts, was from Colorado -- my home state. It was also filmed here. I honestly never knew this. I feel something akin to civic pride now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-23-2009 @ 10:27AM
bruce kirschenbaum said...
Come on Coen brothers. Can't you think of something more original than following studio nonsense of remaking everything?
True Grit was told from girls point of view quite a bit. Why remake a classic? There are plenty of young writers out there with idea.
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3-23-2009 @ 10:43AM
Jack said...
My God. Please no. Make it stop – I am begging you. Put a stop to all these remakes. Now a remake of True Grit? What? There is something magical about that film. John Wayne, Kim Darby, and Glen Campbell (not just acting, but also singing the title song). With all the talent involved, including Robert Duvall & Dennis Hopper, there is clearly no need to remake this classic. And of all people, The Coen Brothers. What, they can’t find anything original to do anymore?
I hope someone remakes Blood Simple. Jerks.
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3-23-2009 @ 10:50AM
Stan Wingson said...
Just don't make it George Clooney in Wayne's role. Clooney's fine and all but c'mon enough movies together. Find someone new. Or cast someone truly inspired like Clint Eastwood.
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3-23-2009 @ 11:36AM
Julie said...
I'm afraid I'm in the don't touch a classic camp on this one. While I would not necessarily be opposed to a remake, I'd prefer it done by someone I trusted with a classic western. Everything the Coen Brothers do is just a bit too twisted. I can't believe there isn't an original piece or work just waiting to be made out there. Enough with the remakes already.
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3-23-2009 @ 1:05PM
paul said...
You stole my line! Anyway, the Coens are such great film makers (imo) and No Country For Old Men is such a great movie I'd love to see what they would do with True Grit. Tommy Lee Jones would make a good, grizzled Rooster Cogburn, no? It's been forty years since the original, a friggin' generation. Make it and they will come, and I think it's likely it'll be in the running for a certain little gold statue.
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3-23-2009 @ 4:59PM
Thomas said...
The actor I imagine the Coens casting as Rooster Cogburn - Harrison Ford. I have always wondered why Harrison never really did any westerns. He would have been perfect in them. Maybe this will be his chance.
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3-23-2009 @ 5:15PM
Richard von Busack said...
Thanks for the tip off on this, ER. Wanted to link to a piece I did on the original a while back. Actually, as much as I love this original movie--and I love it a lot--I think the book has enough in it that the Coens could go back for seconds. Even a change in venue from the high country to the swampier Ozarks (where the book is set) could change matters completely.
http://www.cinematical.com/2008/06/03/rvbs-after-images-true-grit-1969/
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3-23-2009 @ 8:26PM
Gary said...
It is amazing how many people are so keen to make comment without reading the story first!
This is not a remake knuckleheads, jeez.
True Grit was itself an adaptation of a novel, this movie is another adaptation of the same novel, it will be a different movie from the first and certainly not a remake.
I too am sick of this current remake fetish that Hollywood have but this is not an example of that, by any stretch of the imagination. A remake is actually remaking an original film, not going back to the source material and coming up with a new angle.
The history of film is littered with some great adaptations of novels (or comic books for that matter) that have already been filmed at least once before, many of them better than previous attempts.
Classics like The Count Of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, What about Jane Austin, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens? Which is your favourite adaptaion? The first? the second? or the third?
Don't let the current hollywood trash blur your judgement on two of our greatest filmmakers tackling a second adaptation of a novel they no doubt feel can be done differently enough to warrant the endeavor.
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3-24-2009 @ 11:04AM
Jack said...
You're the "knucklehead". Why don't you go back, since you missed it the first time, and read the TITLE of the article.
Here, let me help you:
The Coen Bros Remaking 'True Grit'.
A homage to a classic western, such as "Shane", that Clint Eastwood did with "Pale Rider", is just fine. A "Remake" is quite different - It's a copy. And with "True Grit", well, that is pointless - unless you're just after $$$$.
Period.
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3-24-2009 @ 4:34PM
Gary said...
Please forgive me, I forget sometimes.
You see where I come from we actually read the article to get the story, not just rely on the headline. The article clearly explains that this is not a remake - just a sensationalist headline from Cinematical.
Not your fault though, there are after all lots of words here, maybe Cinematical could look at doing a comic book version of the blog?
3-24-2009 @ 1:27PM
Peter said...
I just got Dennis Hopper as a voice on my GPS. I got it from a site called Navtones, they do real celebrity voices for PND's and Hopper is one of them.
It reminded me how good Hopper is and I hope he gets a role in this remake, at least a cameo role!
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4-06-2009 @ 1:21PM
Chris said...
There actually has already been a remake...albeit a 1978 TV movie with Warren Oates as Rooster Cogburn. What I don't understand is why don't they remake bad movies in order to make them better?
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