The Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan, have gained an entirely new level of respect and appreciation as filmmakers over the last few years thanks to their Oscar-winning adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men and last year’s box office hit Burn After Reading. Having their names attached to a movie called True Grit has gotten a lot of interest because the 1969 John Wayne movie of the same name is a popular Western. In fact, the Coens have decided to go back to the Charles Portis novel of the same name to create their own movie based on it.
ComingSoon.net had a chance to interview the Coens with a small group of journalists for their new movie A Serious Man and eventually, they were asked about the Western.
“We did see it as kids. I don’t know if Joel’s seen it since,” Ethan said once the movie was mentioned. “It made very little impression on me, the movie. We subsequently both read the book and the book made a huge impression and I guess that’s kind of why we’re interested in doing the movie.”
“It’s not a great movie but it is a great book actually,” his brother continued.
“It’s not really a remake, it’s an adaptation,” Ethan admitted to which Joel added, “Yeah, we were trying to figure out what it was the other day, too. What do you call it?”
They’re hoping that this project will be next although they’re not sure and are hoping that it will get done in the spring.
Despite there having been word out of Toronto that Jeff Bridges aka “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski was the frontrunner for the John Wayne role in the new movie, the brothers remained coy about confirming that, merely saying, “We’re talking to somebody.”
Look for our full interview with the Coens plus an exclusive interview with the stars of their new movie A Serious Man closer to the film’s limited release on October 2.
