Last week it was nothing more than rumour but now Variety have confirmed that 13 year-old newcomer, Hailee Steinfeld has been plucked from the 15,000 girls who auditioned, and has been cast in the coveted role of Mattie Ross in the Coen brothers’ forthcoming True Grit. The movie starts shooting next month and she’ll star alongside Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin.

Well done to her!

Details included within a Texas casting call for the Coen brothers’ next movie, an adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel True Grit, shed some light on many of the movie’s characters. Details of the characters are below and details of the casting sessions can be found here;

Character Breakdowns:
True Grit FEATURED EXTRAS and 2 ROLES:

GENERAL NOTE – Casting all types – esp Native American, African American (non-relaxed hair), Hispanic & people over age 60. All faces should not be too refined. Hard-bitten western faces. Frontier types! Rough looking. Hair must not be colored.

• FRANK JAMES – 70’s – 80’s. Beady-eyed bastard. Very mean looking. Thug. Son-of-a-gun. Not a nice guy!
• ODUS WHARTON – Mid to late 20’s, but not boyish. Mean face. Bad man! Dark / suspect genes. A dude you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark hollow.
• GRANDMA TURNER – 60’s – 70’s. 2 options: Very large woman (too big to share bed w/Mattie). Old crone (mean old lady).
• FRANK ROSS – 40’s, late 30’s. Same gene pool as Mattie Ross. Tall, thin, not heavy. Great face!
• YOUNG BOY – Stereotypical newsie. Interesting features – big ears, crooked teeth, or lots of freckles, etc.
• WILD WEST PERFORMERS – Cowboys & Native Americans (or non-Native Americans that could fit the description. Long haired). Cowboys should look a bit older (like non-practicing cowboys).
• 40 YEAR-OLD MATTIE – Mattie seen as an adult woman. Thin & severe, she has brown hair and brown eyes. She may also function as the narrator, who comments on the action in retrospect…at least 1 line, 1 scene MAJORITY OF THIS ROLE MAY BE IN VOICE-OVER.
• MATTIE ACTING DOUBLE – MUST BE 18 or over, legally. To play age 14. A 5′5″, thin, preferably brown haired, brown eyed actress needed as an acting double for MATTIE ROSS, a precocious, self-possessed girl. Should have narrow shoulders & a slender body type. Please note, though the acting double will be playing scenes w/ the other characters, her face & voice will not appear in the final film. Must have acting experience.

That’s right! Focus Features have teamed up with Variety, a Californian children’s charity, to auction off the 1966 Dodge Coronet that was used as Larry Gopnik’s car in the Coen brothers’ latest movie, A Serious Man.

So you can bid to buy a fine, classic car and get an instant karma boost at the same time. Happy bidding!

Interesting things afoot on the internet suggesting that the Coen brothers have finally found the girl to play Mattie Ross in their movie adaptation of True Grit.

Thanks to eagle-eyed YKFK reader, David who spotted a posting on the Facebook page of casting director Marci Liroff (subsequently removed/deleted) stating that; “HUGE congratulations go to my student Hailee Steinfeld who just got the coveted part of “Mattie Ross” in the Coen Bros. remake of True Grit.”

On top of that it seems one of her friends has Twittered her congratulations; “So incredibly proud of my fam friend Hailee Steinfeld- just landed the lead role in the remake of “True Grit” opposite Damon and Jeff Bridges!”

So, who is Hailee Steinfeld? Here’s her IMDB page.

Again, many thanks to David for his Columbo-esque detective work.

Reelzchannel.com has a very short interview with Jeff Bridges who is set to play Rooster Cogburn in the Coens’ adaptation of True Grit. Here’s what he had to say;

On whether or not John Wayne’s performance in the original movie adaptation will influence his own;

“It doesn’t, really, because the brothers are basing their script on the novel by Charles Portis. I don’t think they’re really considering it a remake of that film, but rather a remake of that book. So I’m looking at the book and the character who’s written in the book. I admire John Wayne; I think he’s a wonderful actor, but I’m not going to reference him, really. I’m just going to do the book.”

On the on-going quest to cast the 14 year-old girl to play the pivotal role of Mattie Ross;

“Well, it’s a large role. Any role that big is going to be a challengefor any actor, but for an actor of a young age, it’s going to be even tougher. But we know it can be done; look at Tatum O’Neal [Oscar winner for 1973's Paper Moon]. She did a wonderful job. There are lot of terrific young actors, and as a matter of fact, I might even take my statement back because I’ve worked with some really wonderful child actors who’ve had no trainingwhatsoever, and they turn out to be great. A lot of acting is just about pretending, and kids are certainly good at that.”
Thanks again to Joe!

Here’s a very short report confirming that True Grit will shoot in Santa Fe, New Mexico in March and April.

Thanks to Joe for mailing this one in.

This year’s Oscar nominations have just been announced by Anne Hathaway and A Serious Man is up for two awards! Along with the predictable nod for Best Original Screenplay the movie is also up for the big one- Best Picture!

No Best Actor nom for Michael Stuhlbarg though. Real shame!

A full list of nominations can be seen here – http://oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees