Barry Pepper Joins True Grit
Barry Pepper has joined the cast of the Coen brothers’ True Grit.
The movie stars Jeff Bridges as U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn who is hired by a 14-year-old girl to avenge her father’s murder at the hands of a drifter named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Along the way, they are joined by a Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) who helps track the killer. Robert Duvall originated the Pepper role in the 1969 western which starred John Wayne as Cogburn.
Pepper’s upcoming credits include Casino Jack starring Kevin Spacey.
Coens Cast Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit
Joel and Ethan Coen have cast Hailee Steinfeld to play Mattie Ross in their upcoming adaptation of True Grit based on the novel by Charles Portis.
The novel opens in 1928 with an old Mattie Ross telling the story of when, in 1873 at the age of 14 years, she set out to avenge her father’s death at the hands of a drifter named Tom Chaney. She enlists the help of an aging US Marshal named Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn to help her on her quest. Josh Brolin will play Chaney. Jeff Bridges will play Cogburn. Matt Damon also stars as a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf who joins forces with Mattie and Cogburn to help track the killer.
True Grit is currently scheduled to open in theaters Christmas Day 2010.
Brolin/Damon In Talks for True Grit Remake
Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are in talks to cowboy up for the Joel and Ethan Coen remake of True Grit for Paramount Pictures.
The movie will star Jeff Bridges as U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn. 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. Brolin is in talks to play the killer.
The original movie, released in 1969 and starring John Wayne, was inspired by the novel by Charles Portis. The remake, adapted by the Coens, is said to be more faithful to the original text. Production is expected to begin in March for a late 2010 release.
A Serious Man Trailer
Apple has the movie trailer the next movie from Joel Coen and Ethan Coen titled A Serious Man. The movie will make its world premiere in September at the Toronto Film Festival as part of the Special Presentations programme. Here’s what it’s all about.
It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous colleagues, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry’s unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolf) is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry’s chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man?
And I thought my life was complicated. Taking care of a couple of kids. Working a full time job. Trying to keep this website going. Just barely being able to pay the bills every month. Finding time to paint the outside of the house when it just won’t stop raining. Struggling with weeds and bugs in my lawn. At least my wife isn’t cheating on me. Or at least I hope she isn’t. Thankfully, though, I have no interest in being a serious man. But, I wouldn’t mind getting myself some Sirius satellite radio someday. Check out the video below or visit Apple to watch in HD.
Movie Review: Intolerable Cruelty
Intolerable Cruelty is the Coen brothers’ latest project. It stars George Clooney again, this time as the successful, handsome and charming sleazy divorce lawyer Miles Massey, whose specialty is the Massey Pre-Nup, the document that virtually assures that rich people will not have to pay their spouse a sweet penny when they get divorced. The Massey Pre-Nup is so tight, they spend a whole semester at Harvard Law School teaching it. Then along comes Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the absolutely stunning beautiful and equally charming sleazy socialite, who has caught her philandering husband Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann) on video with another woman. Rex hires Miles, Miles wins the case, Rex doesn’t pay Marilyn a cent, Marilyn comes to Miles with her new billionaire oil husband Howard Doyle (Billy Bob Thornton) to sign the Massey Pre-Nup, Doyle eats the Pre-Nup with barbecue sauce to prove his love of Marilyn, Marilyn makes millions in the divorce and Miles falls in love with Marilyn. Oh, and in all this, there was an asthmatic hit man named Wheezy Joe (Irwin Keyes) that the audience seemed to love.
Intolerable Cruelty is a movie about rich people and their money. In other words, there is not much of a story here. There are rich lawyers, rich husbands and rich women who marry rich men for their money. Even Wheezy Joe is influenced by the almighty dollar. The Coen brothers put their unique spin on the story and use their witty dialogue to put the lawyers, the rich people and their money in a number of comical situations which, for the most part, are mildly amusing. There are a few genuinely funny moments and I liked hearing the Simon and Garfunkel music in the movie, but overall Intolerable Cruelty is a barely tolerable movie. It has its moments of tolerability – Clooney’s Massey is the highlight of the movie and is probably the only likeable character in the entire movie – and only barely. And Catherine Zeta-Jones is so beautiful that I could see why a rich man would eat a pre-nuptial agreement for her sake.
For the most part, however, I found the characters in the movie so unlikable and their motives so greedy that I had a really hard time staying interested in the movie. Sure there is the witty Coen dialogue (although I don’t understand why the line “You fascinate me” is so funny, especially since it is in every single trailer and television commercial and by the time it is shown in the movie it shouldn’t be nearly as funny as it could have been – yet people still laughed hysterically). Sure there are unique characters – Donovan Donaly (Geoffrey Rush) is a funny rich guy; Howard Doyle (Billy Bob) is a funny, annoying rich guy; and I am sure fans of the Coen brothers will be talking about Wheezy Joe for years.
Despite some good moments and a few genuine laughs, Intolerable Cruelty did nothing to make me more of a fan of the Coen brothers. I have always been lukewarm about their movies. I have seen a few of their movies, have had some good laughs but have never had an urge to watch them more than once. After seeing Intolerable Cruelty, I doubt I will ever go out of my way to see this movie again. Before I walked out of the theatre, Intolerable Cruelty was already a distant memory. The only thing that I really got from this movie is that it is better not to be rich. But if you are rich, even if you are an wrinkled old man with a shriveled up penis, you can still get women who look like Catherine Zeta-Jones, which I suppose if you look at Michael Douglas, is a lesson that holds a lot more truth than you may think. (5 out of 10)
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