Jesus, talk about killer cast. The Coen Brothers had been threatening to remake the Henry Hathaway-directed, John Wayne-starring 1969 Western, “True Grit,” for almost two years now and made inroads just one month ago when they started having discussions with Jeff Bridges, immortalized forever in cinema for having played Jeff, “The Dude” Lebowski in the Coen’s classic, “The Big Lebowski,” for Wayne’s eye-patch wearing lead role.
Now Matt Damon and Josh Brolin, who played the star of the Coen Brothers’ Academy Award-winning, “No Country For Old Men,” have joined the talks according to DealMemo.
And it’s happening sooner than you think. Paramount is putting the project into production next March for late 2010 release. The film is basically your average Western revenge tale about a young girl whose father is double crossed and killed by a helping-hand/outlaw. She hires a drunken U.S. Marshal (Wayne/now Bridges), later joined by a Texas Ranger, to seek revenge.
Damon is in talks to play the lawman/Texas Ranger (Glen Campbell in the original) who teams with the drunken U.S. Marshal (Bridges) and a 14-year old girl to track her father’s killer into hostile Indian territory. Brolin is in discussions to play the killer. The young girl has yet to be cast, just don’t make it one of the Fanning sisters, please.
Man, the producers? Scott Rudin and Steven Spielberg making this even more of a super-project. Damon was just quoted during recent “The Informant,” press that when he got that gig his career was cold as ice. Now dude has the pick of the litter when it comes to great projects. Dare we say he’s becoming the new Harrison Ford?
The rest of Damon’s 2009 and 2010 is going to be nuts. He’s shooting, “The Adjustment Bureau” now and this Coen Brothers means Damon is doing Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter,” “True Grit” and then Soderbergh’s “Liberace” pretty much back to back to back. Talk about an acting marathon. Wonder if that means the latter director is a little worried about schedules. Then again, if ‘Grit’ is done by April, “Liberace” should be in the clear.