The search is over. The Coen brothers have finally cast their Mattie Ross for their forthcoming remake of “True Grit,” the 1969 Henry Hathaway’ Western starring John Wayne and Glen Campbell.
As you likely already know, this remake stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and is set to shoot in March for a December 25, 2010 release.
But the key missing puzzle was Mattie Ross, the brassy teenager in the film who gets the plot and story rolling when her father is murdered by his cowardly farm hand (Brolin) and she then hires a drunken irascible U.S. Marshall (Bridges) to track him down. A hard-nosed Texas Ranger (Matt Damon), already on the man’s tail eventually joins their pursuit.
In the original book, the original film and the Coens screenplay, Mattie Ross is 14-years-old, precocious and takes no guff. She is a pain in the ass which is why the Coens put on a vast U.S. search for the teenage girls late last year and were looking for someone who could hold their own against these huge stars. In fact, the filmmakers turned to the Internet to find their Mattie Ross and their requirements listed her as someone who must be, “sassy, fearless, sure of herself, doesn’t care if the other person likes her, gets her way!” They should not be “sad,” “weak” or “cutesy,” they wrote on the TrueGrit casting website.
Well, apparently after seeing and auditioning their 15,000 teenage girls, Joel and Ethan Cohen have found their girl according to Deadline. She will be played by 13-year old Hailee Steinfeld who only has a few credits to her name, but apparently has a website already set up for herself (though it appears to be down, but she apparently recently signed with ICM, so she won’t be unknown for long).
Scott Rudin is producing. With a December 25 release date surely the Coens and Paramount will by vying for Oscar 2010 gold come the end of the year.