True Grit Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Josh Brolin and Matt Damon to Star in Coen's 'True Grit' Remake
Filed under: Action », Classics », Drama », Casting », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels », Western »
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.
Jeff Bridges May Have 'True Grit' For the Coen Bros
Filed under: Action », Classics », Drama », Casting », Paramount », RumorMonger », Scripts », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels », Western »
Rooster Cogburn will abide, if the Coen Bros, Jeff Bridges, and Paramount come to terms. Variety reports that Bridges and the Coens are in talks for Bridges to play the iconic Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Bros' remake of True Grit. It would be their first collaboration since The Big Lebowski. When the True Grit remake was first announced, the Coens were said to be making a more faithful adaptation of Charles Portis' novel, and it seemed like it might head into darker No Country for Old Men territory. But the book features a lot of deadpan humor mixed with Old Testament lessons, and if they stick to it for the script, it'll play to their talents extremely well.
At first glance, Bridges seems a pretty offbeat choice for Rooster Cogburn. But having just rewatched the John Wayne original last week, I think it might just be casting heaven. Rooster is a killer, but he's also a fall down drunk, full of sarcastic quips, and surprisingly tender-hearted. He's far from the typical stoic John Wayne character, and it was a bigger departure for Wayne than I had remembered. Bridges would be a perfect choice for blending the rugged charm, the humor, and the "true grit" of Rooster, and he's talented enough to not just play it as an imitation, but make it iconic on its own. If this comes together, it's one remake that could actually equal or outdo the original.
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.
RvB's After Images: True Grit (1969)
Filed under: Classics », After Image », Western »
Before it opened, there was much public mulling over whether Harrison Ford had the stamina at age 65 to play Indiana Jones one more time. Apparently the box office grosses answered that question. It was an irrelevant question, anyway. In those Indiana Jones movies, the machinery is what mattered. Ford was there for the ride, just like the audience. I think what was missing in ...Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the elegiac qualities of a late period performance ... for example, the aging heroism in John Wayne's last great movie.
True Grit isn't just the sword outwearing the sheath, and the soul outwearing the breast, as Byron put it. It's also about remaining power in an old carcass. Wayne's rallying of that power in the film's memorable duel: blinking his one good eye at the shock of being called a fat old man, he takes his horse's reins in his teeth and rides down four gunmen. The film is often a comedy, with lines worthy of Mark Twain in it; so much so that the emotional content blindsides you. Every film class in the world quite justly talks about the end of The Searchers, John Ford's image of Wayne framed by a doorway, never at home or really at ease. True Grit has a scene to equal it: a gentle if tersely written scene at a snow-covered grave yard in the high country, with approximately the emotional fire power of the finale of James Joyce's The Dead.
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