True Grit (2010) Review Thread (Spoilers)

[broganreynik]

A month and a half ago, moviegoers’ eyes alit at the news that the Coens wanted to re-adapt Charles Portis’s classic Western novel True Grit — with Jeff Bridges in the Rooster Cogburn role that won John Wayne an Oscar in 1969. Now it looks like they’re getting especially serious, with Matt Damon and Josh Brolin’s names arising as front-runners for the supporting roles of a lawman and a killer (respectively). All that’s left is to pin down a young girl to play the daughter of the slain man whom Cogburn is seeking vengeance for; if anything, this sounds like the role Kiernan Shipka — a/k/a patricidal Sally Draper — was born to play.

Link

I'm starting to get pretty excited for this. As long as they don't try to cast Ellen Page in the role of Mattie Ross. Damon, Brolin and Bridges would be a pretty sweet cast for a Western if you ask me.

[Sussudio]

Couldn't have asked for a better cast

[SquidPuppet]

Coens = Me

[Mier101294]

Paramount Pictures has kicked-off a casting search for the lead role in Joel and Ethan Coen's True Grit. The full details are below (click on the image for the casting site), but they are looking for a 12-16 year old girl and no experience is necessary. Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin were previously announced as part of the cast.

Charles Portis' novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father's killer in hostile Indian territory. While the original film was a showcase for John Wayne, the Coens' version will tell the tale from the girl's point of view.

Link to article below.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=61730

[zombie63]

What about Saoirse Ronan ? She would be almost the right age for it .

[ProgRockFan]

Originally Posted by Mier101294

Link to article below.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=61730

Don't **** w/ The Duke's movies! Remember thier crappy remake of 1955's "The Ladykillers"?

[Mier101294]

Originally Posted by ProgRockFan

Don't **** w/ The Duke's movies!

My thoughts exactly.

[Gremal]

I think they'll do a good job with this. But then again I had high hopes for "A Serious Man" and I thought that sucked. They're still my favorite film makers currently working.

[broganreynik]

It's not a remake of the original movie. It's a different adaptation of the source material.

[fupduk2]

I believe that would be a mistake.

[Atreyu]

Remake a classic, why? You cannot improve on perfection. And one of The Duke's movies, now I admire the Coen Bros. but c'mon. Look what happened with remakes like Psycho and Willy Wonka.

[Sussudio]

Originally Posted by broganreynik

It's not a remake of the original movie. It's a different adaptation of the source material.

Exactly, which I find to be pretty cool. With the cast that's being assembled, I'm very excited

[WyldeMan45]

Reportedly, True Grit (2010) is based off the Charles Portis novel of the same name and not a direct remake of the 1969 Henry Hathaway-directed John Wayne classic. No matter what, though, the original movie is so well known that it will be at the forefront of many moviegoers' minds. The new Grit features Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn (the John Wayne role), Matt Damon as La Boeuf (the Glen Campbell role) and Josh Brolin presumably as bad guy Ned Pepper (the Robert Duvall role). Mr. Bridges previously worked with the Coens on The Big Lebowski, while Brolin, who headlines the Western-themed Jonah Hex in June, co-starred in the Coens' No Country for Old Men.

The original True Grit is not necessarily some untouchable classic, but its star, John Wayne, remains such an icon to this day that it's hard to imagine anyone filling his shoes, even a venerable actor like Jeff Bridges (there will probably be many "The Dude takes on The Duke" references). Younger audiences might not care, but older audiences likely will and they are the ones that drive business for Westerns. The Coens and the marketing should work double-time to explain why they've remade True Grit, beyond Hollywood's usual attempt to cash in on a famous name.

The last major Western remake was 3:10 to Yuma (2007), and it posted decent returns, opening with a $14 million weekend on its way to a $53.6 million final, but its 1957 predecessor wasn't as well known as True Grit. The Alamo (2004) mined material that John Wayne already famously covered in The Alamo (1960), and it failed, grossing $22.4 million in its entire run. In general, Westerns that receive nationwide release are few and far between. The last one was Appaloosa in September 2008, and it only mustered $20.2 million, and The Missing flopped in 2003. Open Range, on the other hand, fared pretty well, racking up $58.3 million in 2003, but one has to go back another ten years, to 1993, to find another successful, straightforward Western: Tombstone, which corralled $56.5 million or the equivalent of over $103 million adjusted for ticket price inflation.

The Coen Bros. have had limited experience in the genre: O Brother, Where Art Thou? aimed for a down home vibe and became one of their most successful pictures (particularly its soundtrack), while No Country for Old Men, despite being set in 1980, had Western elements and stands as their highest-grossing picture at $74.3 million. No Country was well-received by audiences for its action thriller plotline and sequences, but alienated many with its malevolent, artsy-fartsy meanderings. The True Grit remake would be commercially better-served emphasizing the former over the latter. People will want to see a straight-shooting remake, not simply the Coens' dark, snarky spin. As of this writing, though, the movie reportedly hasn't begun production yet, so it's not possible to get a good read on how it might turn out.

At the end of the day, the John Wayne connection may prove helpful in raising awareness for the True Grit remake. Unfortunately, the Western genre has been on the wane since Mr. Wayne's passing (aside from some Clint Eastwood movies), and Westerns are such a rarity these days that the genre itself may dominate True Grit's media coverage. Westerns are considered so quaint to the Hollywood bandwagoners that the prospects of Westerns in the near future may ride on True Grit's performance.

Source

[STARSCREAM]

There need to be more western movies for sure!

[tiger roach]

Man, do these guys ever take a vacation?

I like this idea... the Coens doing a western will work out well I think.

[WyldeMan45]

Originally Posted by STARSCREAM

There need to be more western movies for sure!

Absolutely, I was really hoping Ed Harris was going to adapt the other 2 books in the Cole and Hitch Saga, but the first movie only made it's budget back, while that talking mexican dog movie grossed like $200 mil. Guess we will never see the fantastic words of Robert B. Parker's characters come to life on screen again. I really hope this is successful, it opens Christmas day so we will see....

[SquidPuppet]

Talent in front of the camera and behind it. This could

[P@t_Mtl]

Mix feeling about this one. While the movie with Wayne is not a masterpiece of cinema history, the role of Rooster Cogburn as certainly become iconic in the last 40 years, big shoes too fill.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

Mix feeling about this one. While the movie with Wayne is not a masterpiece of cinema history, the role of Rooster Cogburn as certainly become iconic in the last 40 years, big shoes too fill.

The right guys are there to do it, especially if they give it the Coen tweak.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

The right guys are there to do it, especially if they give it the Coen tweak.

its quite possible. Don't get me wrong I would see it but still not sure how to feel about it