File this one under rumour for the time being but the California Chronicle reckons that past Coen brothers stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney are going to to Duke (pun intended) it out for the John Wayne role in the Coen’s forthcoming remake/adaptation of True Grit.

Thanks to Bunnie for pointing this out.

In a brief interview with the Chigago Tribune novellist Michael Chabon had this to say about the Coen brothers adaptation of his novel…

Q What’s moving forward most quickly is a Coen brothers’ adaptation of “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” right?

A Right. I’m a huge Coen brothers fan. I love their movies. It’s an event when there’s a new Coen brothers movie coming out. I can’t wait to see it. The fact that it’s something I wrote is just gravy. They seem perfect for it. As soon as I heard they were considering it, they sounded like the ideal choice for the material.

I couldn’t agree more about this being right up the Coen’s alley and I really, REALLY hope they get to it as soon as True Grit is finished.

Thanks to Will for mailing this in. 

In a bizarre twist it looks like the zombie article at the Daily Mail from a year ago could have risen from the grave for a good reason. Variety are reporting that the Coen brothers are indeed set to re-make True Grit next. It has apparenlty stepped ahead of “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” in the pecking order.

Good news is that they plan to stick more closely to the plot of the original Charles Portis novel focusing on the story of a 14 year-old girl rather than follow the plot of the John Wayne movie. 

Bad news is- I was really looking forward to ”The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” because the novel is great and right up the Coen’s alley so to speak.

So, the Coens set to do a Western… could be interesting. Now I must read the book…

Thanks to Calvin and Erenik for tipping me off.

I don’t know how or why this is happening but this article from February 2008 from the God awful Daily Mail is showing up all over the place at the moment. I’ve had a lot of emails about it and it’s showing up on RSS feeds, blogs, Twitterings, you name it. I reported on it on March 5th 2008.

Just thought I had better mention it. Personally I don’t believe it. I live in the UK and know how the press here has a habit of making up stupid crap and certainly would not put this past the bastian of journalistic integrity- the Daily Mail. I guess we’ll see if this is true or not in time.

The internet is a funny place…

The world’s most awful newspaper, the UK’s Daily Mail, is reporting that the Coens are set to work on True Grit. Apparently they are to adapt the original Charles Portis novel as opposed to remaking the John Wayne movie. “The book recounts the girl’s story,” Joel apparently told said newspaper. “In the John Wayne film, she was played older. We want her to be her real age – it’s her story!”

This stinks of either crappy journalism or a Coen joke to me. Let’s not forget that the Coens have spoken about making a violent western in the recent past (see the entry dated 30th Dec below).