The Coen Brothers have been threatening to remake the Henry Hathaway-directed, John Wayne-starring 1969 Western, “True Grit,” for almost two years now.
Based on a Charles Portis novel, talk bubbled earlier this year and then Variety confirmed in March, that the Coens were actually eyeing the film as their next, post-“A Serious Man,” project and this continues to apparently be their plan.
Now DealMemo reports that Jeff Bridges, famous for playing Jeff, “The Dude” Lebowski in the Coens classic, “The Big Lebowski” is in talks for John Wayne’s eye-patch wearing lead role.
The film is basically your average Western revenge tale about a young girl whose father is doublecrossed and killed by a helping-hand/outlaw. She hires a drunken U.S. Marshal (Wayne), later joined by a Texas Ranger, to seek revenge.
The film, if it happens as planned, will not only reunite Bridges with the Coens (who hasn’t worked with them since ’98s ‘Lebowski’), but it will reteam the producer/directer/ writer siblings with Scott Rudin, who produced their Oscar-winning, “No Country For Old Men.” The project is set-up over at Paramount.
Sounds super interesting. Wonder what tone they would strike. Frankly, we’d love to see more pictures in the vein of ‘Country’ which was really the best thing they’ve made in ages, and considering the serious tone of the original, we could finally see the Coens taking on the Western genre with little movieness or smirk on their faces. Wayne won his one and only Academy Award for this performance in the Best actor category. We’d buy tickets to see this, let’s make it happen, people.