For a while now Joel and Ethan Coen have been planning to make a new version of the classic 1969 John Wayne western, True Grit. At the beginning of last month, it was announced that Jeff Bridges is going to step into Wayne’s shoes and play Rooster Cogburn, and now comes news (via Variety) that Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are both in talks for roles in the movie.
True Grit sees a 14-year-old girl recruiting a boozy, hard-nosed US Marshal, Rooster Cogburn, to help her track down her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory. Along the way they team up with a Texas Ranger, La Beouf, who’s looking for the same man.
Damon is up for the role of La Beouf, played by Glen Campbell in the original, while Brolin would play the killer.
It’s certainly quite a team for a movie that promises to be more faithful to the original source novel than the 1969 film, and concentrate on the girl’s mission for justice, rather than the broken down Rooster Cogburn. As yet there’s no news on who will play the girl (although surely it’ll be Abigail Breslin, as I think she’s legally obliged to play all major film roles for girls under the age of 16 at the moment).
The film is due to start filming next March, with Scott Rudin and Steven Spielberg producing. The original won John Wayne his only Oscar, and with the Coen’s lining up one hell of a team, they’ll be hoping their redo can score a few nominations of its own. This is one remake we can see being just as good as the original.