Looks like the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit is going to have its fair share of true glamour, following the news that A-listers Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are in talks to join Jeff Bridges in the Western drama.
Bridges, of course, has been attached for some time to the project as Rooster Cogburn, the irascible lawman role that bagged John Wayne his solitary Oscar back in 1969. Damon is in talks to join him as La Beouf, the lawman who accompanies Cogburn and his fourteen year-old niece, Mattie, on a perilous trek through Indian country in an attempt to find the killer of Mattie’s father.
Brolin, who famously donned a white hat for the Coens in No Country For Old Men, will don a black hat this time around to play the killer, Tom Chaney, played by Jeff Corey in the Henry Hathaway film.
The key role of Mattie who, as per the Charles Portis novel on which the Coens will be basing their movie, is the narrator and ostensible main character, has yet to be filled, but with a March start date looming, expect that situation to change soon.
As for today’s casting, it’s potentially brilliant. Brolin makes a great good guy, but there’s a turmoil beneath the surface that should make him perfect for the Chaney role, while frankly it’s about time that Damon and the Coens hooked up.
True Grit, which will be produced by the Coens along with fellow heavy hitters, Scott Rudin and Steven Spielberg, will be funded by Paramount Pictures, and is already set for Oscar-bothering release late next year.