True Grit Remake On The Way

**mr.brighteyes** · 03-23-2009, 08:53 AM

Joel and Ethan Coen are taking on Charles Portis' novel TRUE GRIT (available

Not a traditional remake, the Paramount film will be more faithful to the Charles Portis book than the 1969 pic, also distributed by Par.

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.

TRUE GRIT was originally filmed in 1969 by director Henry Hathaway. John Wayne starred. Alfred Ryder, Ron Soble, Kim Darby, and John Fiedler also appeared - all of whom Geeks might recognize as guest stars on the original STAR TREK series).

The movie spawned a theatrical sequel called ROOSTER COGBURN (Wayne's character in the first film), and is famous for the smack talk/showdown between John Wayne and Robert Duvall - seen in the embed below.

I don't know how to embed but I'm glad someone is finally remaking a John Wayne movie. The question is, who do you get to play the lead character. Just about anybody can play the young girl but I'd like to see someone I have faith in as a young actress. Ellen Page comes to mind but then again I'd cast her in just about anything so maybe someone a little less obvious. Like I said the real question is who do you get to replace John Wayne as the lead. Wayne was 62 when he made this movie. He was nearing the end of his life and playing an alcoholic and really looked the part.

Both Robert Duval and Dennis Hopper were in this movie when they were young men. Hopper was 33 and Duval was 38

Harrison Ford is nearing 70 This very well could be his retirement picture if he decided to make it and then ride off into the sunset. Connery retired at 76 maybe its time for Ford to do the same especially since Indy wasn't as well received as was expected.

**StoneGold** · 03-23-2009, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by mr.brighteyes

I don't know how to embed but I'm glad someone is finally remaking a John Wayne movie.

Been done before. Hell, Wayne remade Rio Bravo twice. Unless I'm mixing up my films and Rio Bravo was one of the remakes, and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. And Four Brothers was a pretty good remake of Sons of Katie Elder.

And that's not counting stuff like Raiders re-doing the Stagecoach stunt with trucks. Although I guess technically Canutt had done the stunt prior to Stagecoach, it just got popularized there.

**Mr.EZ** · 03-23-2009, 10:07 AM

I saw this and thought "Aw, what the fuc... oh, it's the Coen Brothers. Ok, carry on."

**StoneGold** · 03-23-2009, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by Mr.EZ

I saw this and thought "Aw, what the fuc... oh, it's the Coen Brothers. Ok, carry on."

Now here's the real question - are all the people who were hand wrenching because Watchmen was as close to a straight-up retelling as you were going to get do the same thing when the Coens do that with the book for True Grit? Because it's what they did for No Country.

**StoneGold** · 03-23-2009, 10:17 AM

Oh, and except for the last bit with Wayne charging in with the horse, True Grit kinda sucked as a movie. Rooster Cogburn and the Lady was better.

**Howard Allan** · 03-23-2009, 10:38 AM

"Fill Your Fists, You Son of a Bitch."

**Slam_Bradley** · 03-23-2009, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by StoneGold

Oh, and except for the last bit with Wayne charging in with the horse, True Grit kinda sucked as a movie. Rooster Cogburn and the Lady was better.

Neither were particularly good films. Wayne, however, was the only saving grace in True Grit. Darby was wooden as wooden could be. Campbell was horrible. Hathaway even managed to pull marginal performances out of Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper.

**Mr.EZ** · 03-23-2009, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by StoneGold

Now here's the real question - are all the people who were hand wrenching because Watchmen was as close to a straight-up retelling as you were going to get do the same thing when the Coens do that with the book for True Grit? Because it's what they did for No Country.

Does it really matter though? Most modern movie-goers wouldn't even know it had been a book first, just like they wouldn't know Die Hard was a book too.

Does True Grit have fans that are as quick to freak as Watchmen fans?

**StoneGold** · 03-23-2009, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by Mr.EZ

Does it really matter though? Most modern movie-goers wouldn't even know it had been a book first, just like they wouldn't know Die Hard was a book too.

Does True Grit have fans that are as quick to freak as Watchmen fans?

No, but you had a good number of people suddenly deciding that a faithful adaptation was lazy filmmaking out of nowhere. I'm not saying any one person in particular saying that, but it was out there.

**Mr.EZ** · 03-23-2009, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by StoneGold

No, but you had a good number of people suddenly deciding that a faithful adaptation was lazy filmmaking out of nowhere. I'm not saying any one person in particular saying that, but it was out there.

That's true, but Zack Snyder is no Joel and Ethan Coen. I imagine they'd be able to pull things off that Snyder fizzled at.

Though, what do I know? I haven't, nor will I ever, see Watchmen.

**jesse_custer** · 03-24-2009, 06:42 AM

Yes! I heard about this quite some time ago, and I'm glad it's actually being made.

**Joe Rice** · 03-24-2009, 06:46 AM

The book True Grit also isn't made in a way that a lazy, shitty director can try to make it into a storyboard. The laziness of Snyder wasn't the directness (which isn't really even direct) it's the visual uninventiveness and lack of translation to a new medium.

If the Coens just show the words of the book going by on the screen, that might be the same.

**Alan Lynch** · 03-24-2009, 06:53 AM

How did a thread about True Grit get hijacked by a Watchmen discussion? Hell, I liked that movie but aren't there enough places on the internet to talk about it?

That said, this could be good. The Coens doing a period Western? I'm sold, remake or not.