Damon, Brolin show Coens their 'Grit'

Duo in talks to star in Paramount redo

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Damon

Brolin

Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are in discussions with Joel and Ethan Coen to join the cast of "True Grit," the redo of the 1969 Western that Paramount will put into production in March for release late next year.

Jeff Bridges is set to star as U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn (Daily Variety, Sept. 11). Damon would play the lawman who teams with Cogburn and a 14-year-old girl to track her father's killer into hostile Indian territory. Glen Campbell played the part in the original John Wayne starrer.

Brolin is in talks to play the killer. The actor recently played the good guy in the Coens' Oscar-winning "No Country for Old Men" and the murderous Dan White in "Milk." Jeff Corey played the killer in the original "True Grit," and Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper also played outlaws.

The Coens are producing with Scott Rudin and Steven Spielberg. The Coens wrote a script that's more faithful to the Charles Portis novel that inspired the original pic. 

Damon just wrapped the Clint Eastwood-directed "Invictus" and is shooting George Nolfi's "The Adjustment Bureau." He's also set to reteam with Eastwood in "Hereafter." Brolin, who recently wrapped "Jonah Hex" and Woody Allen's "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," is shooting Oliver Stone's "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps" and then will star in the Asger Leth-directed drama "Cartel," which begins production in January.