Vitals
- Products: True Grit
- Genres: Action Adventure, Drama
- Director: Coen brothers
- Theatrical Release Date (US): December 25, 2010
- Writer: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
- Cast Members: Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon
- Studio: Paramount Pictures
Joel and Ethan Coen, whose forthcoming 1960s sexual revolution Richard Kind vehicle A Serious Man has wrapped production, have announced that the next thing they shoot will NOT be an adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union as had been previously thought. Cue the gasps! That project is still on the slate, but before it, so says The Guardian will be an adaptation of the novel True Grit.
True Grit has been adapted before - indeed, if you've never seen a John Wayne movie in your life, you really owe it to yourself to go out and see The Searchers. After that, go see Red River. But after THAT, be sure to see True Grit, the only film for which The Duke won the Oscar.
The announcement today is making it clear that the Coens are not remaking the original film, rather adapting the novel which, I expect, was different from the 1969 Wayne film version.
I love the idea of the Coens doing a Western. I just hope they continue to work with DP Roger Deakins. Last year's disappointing Burn After Reading was the only Coens film not shot by Deakins or Barry Sonnenfeld and, I think, that may've been part of the problem. (A Serious Man has Deakins back on board, which is relieving.) Plus, Deakins totally outdid himself with the Western-ish The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and I'm itching to see more of that.
