Coenesque

Barry Pepper is joining the cast of True Grit.  He will reprise the role of “Lucky” Ned Pepper a notorious outlaw.  “Lucky” was played by Robert Duvall in the 1969 version of the film.  Pepper is perhaps best known for his role as Private Daniel Jackson the crack sniper in Saving Private Ryan. 

Just looking at the IMDB.com entry for True Grit and I noticed a surprise producer.  See below.  Anyone have any info on how this came about? 

Thanks to Angel Diaz

Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld has been cast in the lead role of Mattie Ross in the Coen Brothers upcoming retelling of True Grit.  Filming starts this month and the picture is due out by years end. 

Larry Gopnik’s 1966 DODGE CORONET is being auctioned off for charity.  The auction will benifit Variety – The Children’s Charity of Southern California.  After 8 bids and with 6 days to go it’s at $5000.  A steal if your interested in extremely dull cars used in extremely great movies. 

Auction | Charity

Do you have horse riding skills?  Can you be in New Mexico in March and April?  Perhaps you should through your hat in the ring and register at egcasting.com or mail contact information with riding experience, sizes and photos to: Elizabeth Gabel, 304 Washington SE, Albuquerque, N.M. 87108.  I can barely ride bike so I won’t see you there. 

Even though I’ve never heard of the International Cinephile Society I thought I’d report on the outcome of their 2009 awards since A Serious Man won their Best Film prize.  They also won in the directing and original screenplay categories.  The “ICS” was formed in 2003 and is made up of 60 journalists, scholars, and historians.  Blah, blah.  All I know is they have good taste. 

The Chinese remake of Blood Simple debuted that the Berlin Film Festival.  Zhang Yimou replaced small town America with the Gansu province of northwestern China.  Instead of a bar owner it’s a noodle shop owner.  Sounds pretty amusing.  Yimou first saw Blood Simple at the Cannes film festival but without subtitles he couldn’t follow what was going on.  It wasn’t until years later that he saw it again with Mandarin and decided he had to remake it. 

Joel and Ethan saw the film and were so amused that they sent Yimou an email explaining “They were amazed their film had been turned into a noodle story.”

Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges will be getting a little dusty when cameras roll on “True Grit” the Coen Brothers latest attempt at adpating a novel.  Production will begin next month in New Mexico.  This represents a return to both New Mexico and Adaptation since the 2007 “No Country For Old Men”. 

Bridges will assume the role of Rooster Cogburn the character made famous by John Wayne in the 1968 film version.  Damon will play La Boeuf a Texas ranger who joins Cogburn on the trail of a murderer. 

I for one and looking forward to reuniting The Dude with The Coens.  Only good things can happen.  Damon ought to fit in nicely as well.  Josh Brolin is rumored to be joining the cast as well but nothing is official. 

True Grit is slated for a Holiday 2010 release