Jeff Bridges is known for many roles, but perhaps none are more iconic than his role as Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski. So when you hear the Dude may play a role originated by the Duke it just somehow seems like bigger news than it may actually be.
That’s the word, though, from Michael Fleming at Variety as Jeff Bridges is said to be in discussions with Paramount to star in Joel and Ethan Coen’s redo of True Grit, a film that starred John Wayne as a one-eyed, broken-down marshal in this 1969 adaptation of Charles Portis’s bestselling novel. The Coen feature is said to have been redrafted by the brothers to be more faithful to the Portis novel.
The story centers on a 14-year-old girl who tags along with an aging U.S. marshal, Rooster Cogburn, and another lawman to track the outlaw who killed her father. The original told the story from Cogburn’s point of view, but the new version will work from the viewpoint of the girl.
Kim Darby originated the role of the 14-year-old girl while the film marked John Wayne’s first and only Oscar win.
Bridges will next be seen in The Men Who Stare at Goats before he plays an iconic character of his own as Kevin Flynn in Tron Legacy due out December 17, 2010.
