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.

Last year about this time, Joel and Ethan Coen were basking in the glow of winning multiple Academy Awards for No Country for Old Men. This year, they're hard at work finishing their black comedy follow-up, A Serious Man, which is due out this fall.

While they're in that black comedy mood, the Coen Brothers took time out to direct a 30-second TV ad in support of the Reality Coalition. You can watch the video, which is embedded below, thanks to the folks at Funny or Die. The Reality Coalition wants to "expose the coal industry's misleading marketing campaign for so-called 'clean coal,'" according to a prepared statement.

The Coens have always laced their work with sly, subversive messages, but the video is the first time they've been so straightforward in making a contribution to a, gulp, somewhat political campaign. (Don't worry, the ad itself won't knock you over the head with its message.) The press release says they "were excited to be part of this important project."

I love the line, "Clean Coal Clean harnesses the awesome power of the word 'clean' to make it sound like the cleanest there is." Beyond the concept and the ad copy, what makes the spot work is the deadpan comic timing of the Coen Brothers; the 'suburban family trying a new product' is a tried-and-true advertising gambit, but they give it a good, choking spin. Check it out:

The Coen Brothers are smart. While the critical community has been arguing about the merits of Burn After Reading, which opens wide tomorrow, Joel and Ethan are already knee deep in their next production. A Serious Man started filming in their home state of Minnesota on Monday.

The project was announced in the spring of 2007, just before No Country for Old Men debuted at Cannes. Last month we learned that relatively little-known Michael Stuhlberg and Richard Kind had been cast in the lead roles in the black comedy set in 1967, with Stuhlberg playing a professor whose wife is leaving him, and Kind playing his sofa sleeping brother. While Christopher expressed his hope that Frances McDormand would be playing the wife, that role has gone to Sari Wagner (identified as Sari Lennick by IMDb), one of a trio of seriously unknown Minnesota actors cast in the film, according to an official statement released by Focus Features. The statement also says that the wife has fallen for one of her husband's "more pompous colleagues," who will be played by Fred Melamed.

The other two Minnesota thespians are Aaron Wolf and Jessica McManus, who will be Kind's son ("a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school") and daughter ("filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job"), respectively. I think it's refreshing that the Coens have chosen to go with actors who don't have any previous, sometimes distracting baggage.

As to Burn After Reading, I agree with the quite positive views of Kim and James; I think it's a frequently hilarious and surprisingly insightful "must see." If you still need convincing, listen to the Coens talk about it over at Moviefone. Here's hoping A Serious Man will provoke the same type of response next year.

How do you follow-up a broad comedy starring the biggest names in Hollywood, George Clooney and Brad Pitt? If you're the Coen brothers, you apparently hit the car in reverse and make your next effort a darker story and cast relative unknowns. Variety reports that the newly minted Oscar winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen have cast Tony-nominated stage actor Michael Stuhlbarg (The Pillowman) and TV's Richard Kind (Mad About You; Spin City) for the two lead roles in A Serious Man, their next film after this fall's Burn After Reading. The actors will play brothers in the 1967-set black comedy, which returns the Coens to Fargo territory by placing the story in their home turf of Minneapolis.

In fact, when we first learned of A Serious Man, more than a year ago (and almost a year before the Coens each won 3 Academy Awards, for writing, directing and producing No Country for Old Men), the script was described as being "in the vein of Fargo." Now we get a little inkling more about the plot of Serious: Stuhlberg will play a professor named Larry Gopnik, whose wife is leaving him and whose "socially inept" brother (Kind) won't leave the house. Hopefully, to further repeat the analogy to their double-Oscar-winning 1996 film, the Coens can cast Frances McDormand as the wife, she can then win another Academy Award and Kind (pictured above) can, like William H. Macy before him, finally go from near-obscurity to well-known, well-respected supporting actor within the next decade.

There may not be much footage that we haven't already seen in either the original red-band trailer or the international teaser for the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading, but I noted enough bits and pieces to feel these two new videos worthy of sharing. Plus, for those of you who have a preference, George or Brad, you now have a trailer that fits you best. Personally, I'm hoping that the ladies, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton, get their own character-centric trailers. And while Focus Features is at it, how about individual spots for John Malkovich? Heck, give Richard Jenkins, J.K. Simmons and David Rasche each their own, too. I'm that excited about this movie that I want more, more, more.

Fortunately, we've only got about a month until Burn After Reading opens on September 12.

The consensus I've gotten from people after they've seen the red-band trailer for the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading is that nobody understands what it's about, and nobody cares, because everybody thinks it looks awesome. Well, if you thought that trailer was confusing, or at least lacking in plot synopsis, just imagine how moviegoers outside the U.S. feel after seeing this new international trailer.

As you can see, marketing to international audiences is more about selling the stars. Hence the CLOONEY, the McDORMAND, the MALKOVICH, the SWINTON and the PITT titles. As for story, there's even less revealed here than in the red-band trailer. In fact, it's almost a joke how little is said about the movie. Each actor/character maybe gets to slip in one or two words, which actually just serve as response to more intertitles telling us about the other major stars of the film: the Coens.

Cinematical is absolutely stoked to be premiering this exclusive poster for Burn After Reading (click to enlarge), written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen -- whose last film, No Country for Old Men, caused quite the stir last year online, in theaters and at the Academy Awards. Not sure if you heard of it ... something about a cowboy and a weird haircut? Yes? Maybe? Anyway, one thing the Coen boys are known for are their casts, and Burn After Reading is no exception; this flick boasts appearances from, well, read the poster. You've got Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton. Need I say more? Or less? (Will this post self-destruct in sixty seconds?)

What's being touted as a "dark, spy-comedy," Burn After Reading looks to return the brothers to the kind of humor that was found in films like Raising Arizona or The Big Lebowski (two of my personal favs). The synopsis goes a little something like this: An ousted CIA official's (Academy Award nominee John Malkovich) memoir accidentally falls into the hands of two unwise gym employees intent on exploiting their find.

Burn After Reading will premiere at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival before arriving in theaters on September 12th.

After a brief detour through the more substantial, it looks like the Coen brothers are back in full-on madcap comedy mode with this fall's Burn After Reading. The first trailer has made an appearance here, though since it's red-band, the site requires you to go through a cumbersome process involving iTunes. Among other things, it affords the rare treat of seeing John Malkovich punch Brad Pitt in the nose.

It's always hard to predict how Coen movies are going to come together, but although Pitt might deserve an Oscar for the little dance he does at 1:36, I don't think Burn After Reading will be making an awards run -- it looks very, very strange, sort of in the vein of Raising Arizona. (On the other hand, the fact that the utterly insane O Brother, Where Art Thou? managed a screenplay nomination might mean all bets are off.) I cherish the Coens' comic sensibilities -- Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers were trifles, but they made me laugh, really hard. This looks similarly anarchic and over-the-top.

Burn After Reading premieres at the Venice Film Festival in August and hits theaters September 12th.

After the gut-wrenching terror of No Country for Old Men (I haven't been that tense in a movie theater since, well, ever), I can safely say that I am incredibly relieved that the Coens' next film, Burn After Reading, looks like it is going to be a lot more fun. First Showing now has some stills from the Coens' black comedy, and it would appear that the brothers are returning to what I like to call their 'Raising Arizona roots.'

Burn is the story of a CIA agent (played by George Clooney) who is assigned to investigate the case of a former agent named Ozzie Cox (John Malkovich) who has taken his revenge on the agency by writing a tell-all memoir. When Cox's ex-wife (played by Tilda Swinton) steals the only copy and leaves it behind at her gym, the gym's owner (Frances McDormand) and star personal trainer (Brad Pitt) see an opportunity to engage in a little blackmail.

The Coen flick just got the nod to open the Venice Film Festival this year, but Burn will not be making an appearance at Cannes this year (which is a little strange considering the luck they had at the French festival last year). This makes it zero for two for Pitt now that his other high-profile film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, also failed to make the list for Cannes. Burn After Reading is scheduled for wide release on September 12th, 2008.

As Jack Handey put it, "It takes a big man to laugh at himself, but it takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man." Crimewave is about that big kind of man, and his partner: two electrocutioners on a rampage. They prowl the streets in a truck with a hog-sized stuffed rat on top, with red light bulb eyes. The driver is Faron Crush, who looks like Paul Sorvino playing the Incredible Hulk. HIs sniggering partner Arthur (Brion "I'll tell you about my mother" James) wears a jumpsuit, fingerless leather gloves, and a flat leather cap the shape and color of a cow-chip. If you ever had a nightmare about Gallagher, that's what Arthur looks like. The two maniacs carry with them "a shocker," a killing-machine that has three settings: "Rat," "Man" and "Hero". And they have no motivation beside malice and sheer professionalism.