Variety‘s Mike Fleming is reporting Joel and Ethan Coen are ready to roll on True Grit, the remake of the 1969 John Wayne classic and have brought on Matt Damon and Josh Brolin to star alongside Jeff Bridges who will step into The Duke’s shoes and play U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn.
Damon will play the lawman (played by Glen Campbell in the original) who teams with Cogburn and a 14-year old girl to track her father’s killer into hostile Indian territory. Brolin is in talks to play the killer. It was earlier reported that while the original told the story from Cogburn’s point of view, but the new version will work from the viewpoint of the girl.
The role of the young girl has not yet been cast, but it’s a role that brought Kim Darby some serious attention as she stood toe-to-toe with Wayne in the film that brought him his one and only Oscar win.
This will mark the first time Damon has starred in a Coen brothers feature while Brolin last worked on No Country for Old Men with the brothers as well as starred in the short To Each His Own Cinema for them, which you can watch right here.
Variety reports the film is expected to begin production in March for a late 2010 release from Paramount Pictures.
