JoshBrolin Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's impossible to top an icon like John Wayne, but the Coen Bros' True Grit is shaping up to have a better supporting cast than the original did. (Hey, Wayne supposedly didn't like Kim Darby either.) Variety has just announced that Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are in talks to join Jeff Bridges in the Coens' remake.

Bridges will play Rooster Cogburn, while Damon is in talks to play La Boeuf, the Texas Ranger who pairs up with Cogburn and Mattie. I'll probably anger the Glen Campbell fans out there, but I think this is a vast improvement over the original casting. I can actually buy Damon as a Texas Ranger.

Brolin will be taking a walk on the nasty side, as he'll be playing Tom Chaney, the man who gunned Mattie's father down for the gold he had in his saddlebag. While Chaney wasn't the most pleasant fellow in the original, there's no doubt that Brolin will increase the menace and nastiness. I think we can all agree Brolin has done no wrong since his No Country For Old Men comeback, and this is the kind of role that'll be delicious to watch him tear into. The film is set to go into production in March 2010, and the Coens won't waste any time in the editing room as it's slated to be released in late 2010.

In Milk, Josh Brolin got to play the man who wanted Sean Penn's Harvey Milk out of the way. Now, Brolin gets to be the acclaimed actor's replacement. Variety reports that Brolin has signed on to star in Asger Leth's Cartel -- the role that Penn vacated back in June when he decided to take a break from Hollywood and focus on his personal life.

Inspired by the early '90s Italian film called La scorta, Cartel follows Ed Marker (Brolin) -- a man who "journeys to protect his son after his wife is brutally murdered in the gritty world of Mexican cartels." This is a big jump from the original film, which focused on the struggles of four cops trying to keep a prosecutor safe while mob bosses were brought to justice. So much for a remake!

But what do you think of the switch? I think it goes without saying that Brolin's talents are certainly worthy, but how do you think the change in actors will affect the film? Considering the gritty beauty of Leth's Ghosts of Cite Soliel, I think Brolin's the perfect match. It's no stretch to imagine him sliding into Leth's visual style whilst battling drug-dealing baddies, although it would've been nice to see Penn take on a rough gig like that. Production begins this January in Mexico City.

In 2007, a film called Chacun son cinema was created for the 60th anniversary of Cannes (briefly mentioned here). Like a Paris je t'aime for the cinematically minded, the film collected 33 shorts from directors across the world capturing their feelings about cinema. The collection was any movie-lovers dream -- David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, Jane Campion, Atom Egoyan, Elia Suleiman, Wong Kar Wai, Lars Von Trier, and even the Coen brothers.

After Cannes, it screened at TIFF and other film festivals across the world, and got two region 2 DVD releases. But not only has there been no Region 1 disc for the North Americans eager to see the film, the Coens' World Cinema also got shafted -- not appearing on the StudioCanal DVD and not listed on the Pyramide DVD -- even though their short was a part of screenings.

But now the short, in its entirety, has popped up online and it's awesome. The clip stars Josh Brolin (during the days of No Country for Old Men), Grant Heslov (who just helmed Men Who Stare at Goats), and Brooke Smith (Grey's Anatomy). A cowboy of sorts heads to a movie theater to catch a flick, confused about the two art films available to him. Heslov's ticket guy answers his questions, which includes the gem: "Is there livestock in any of 'em?"

Saying any more than that would ruin the magic, so check it out after the jump. And below that, you can check of Lynch's goosebump-inducing Absurda.

Sometimes the unlikeliest movies attract the strongest casts. Is it the coincidence of schedules, the attraction of a high-quality director, or a dynamite script? Maybe it's all three in the case of Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, which is drawing quality actors like the proverbial flies to honey.

A couple of months ago, we heard that Javier Bardem was the top pick for the role of a villainous hedge fund manager. Now Variety says that Josh Brolin is "reportedly circling a part," though it doesn't specify which one, and other rumors are circulating that actress Carey Mulligan (An Education) may be up for the role of Winnie, the estranged daughter of Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas, reprising his role). Variety also reports that Frank Langella is "in talks" to play the old-time broker / mentor to up-and-coming trader Shia LaBeouf, whose character is engaged to Gecko's daughter. The latter bit of news sounds more solid than the other casting rumors.

Douglas won an Academy Award for the original Wall Street, and Langella was nominated for last year's Frost/Nixon, so the caliber of the cast is definitely trending upwards -- I'd love to see those two argue with each other! Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps is already a strong contender for the unofficial title of "Best Cast of 2010," and if they keep adding high-quality actors, it won't even be a contest. Of course, the quality of the film itself depends on the well-modulated execution of a good script, and that remains to be seen.

Our own Todd Gilchrist already gave you some deets on the Warner Bros. panel, where the studio showed off a whopping six upcoming films, including Sherlock Holmes, Jonah Hex, Nightmare on Elm Street, Where the Wild Things Are, The Box and The Book of Eli. Right before the panel, however, Cinematical squeezed itself into the TV press line in an attempt to snag the folks in and behind these movies so that we could ask them a question or two. Cinematical's Elisabeth Rappe joins our trusty Comic Con cameraman Chris Glenn as both attack the line with a vengeance.

After the jump:
-- Josh Brolin talks about a potential Jonah Hex sequel
-- Jackie Earle Haley talks about experiencing another Comic Con
-- Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman argue over their favorite super powers
-- Robert Rodriguez talks about all the different films he's working on
-- Denzel Washington laughs off any idea that he's got a little geek stuck inside him

Note: Cinematical shared the Brolin and Washington interviews with Frosty from Collider.

The first day of Comic Con is upon us, and what a busy day it is. The Disney 3D panel seemed to be a success, with the biggest news perhaps being that Tron 2 finally has a legitimate title: Tron Legacy. You can see the just-released official logo for the film above. Here's the most brand new synopsis for the highly-anticipated (at least for you 80s kids) sequel:

"TRON is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that's unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (GARRETT HEDLUND), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (JEFF BRIDGES), looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant (OLIVIA WILDE), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous."

Check out the Jonah Hex poster over at SciFi Squad

So amidst yesterday's set visit preview and our first little look at Freddy Krueger, it would appear -- according to Fangoria -- that the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street has been pushed back a bit from April 16th to April 30th, 2010, the same weekend that happened to bring in nearly $30 million for Obsessed this year.

And the same Fangoria piece brings up a move for Josh Brolin's scarred gunslinger, Jonah Hex, up from August 6th to June 18th, 2010. It seems like a vote of confidence, either because Megan Fox is such a big box-office draw now or because Will Arnett will be once G-Force drops this Friday.

We've also confirmed that Nimrod Antal's heist thriller Armored has been bumped from this September 4th back to December 4th. The week after Thanksgiving is usually somewhat of a no-man's-land for the holiday flops to fall away and the awards magnets to work their way up and out, but for every Aeon Flux, we get something fun like Punisher: War Zone, and early rumblings on Armored are that we might not have a dud on our hands. Having enjoyed Antal's Kontroll and 98% of Vacancy, and knowing that this flick helped him land the gig directing Predators, here's hoping.

Let's begin by saying that Josh Brolin can do no wrong, and if there's one man who could be trusted with a John Brown biopic, it's the man who didn't shy away from playing George W. Bush or Dan White. Cinematical caught up with Brolin on the set of Jonah Hex, and he revealed that one of his next projects may be producing and starring in a biopic about the radical abolitionist.

"It's a great, great project. The script was already out there; I read the script, I loved it. It would be a very tough character for me to play. We're going to do some tests once I'm done with this, but it's a great script and story. Somebody who I know, because of Howard Zinn's thing [The People Speak], and I know the character really well. Mark Gordon and I had a conversation, and we said, 'Let's do this, let's get this done.' People have been wanting to do it forever and there's a lot of directors who'd love to be involved, so I think now's the time."

Hopefully, you didn't sleep your way through American history and remember that John Brown was the man who launched a violent raid on Harper's Ferry in a bid to start an armed slave revolt. That was only one of many violent skirmishes he was involved in, and he remains a controversial figure to this day. It's the kind of story just begging to be told on the big screen (why Hollywood continues to reboot and remake the 1980s and 1990s instead of digging up stories from the previous century, I'll never know), and frankly it touches on a historical era that has had a lot of relevance this year. Let's hope it happens.

[via Edward Douglas at ComingSoon for transcribing the quote before the rest of us could get to a computer]