Let’s forget that icky period from 2002-2005, and we can all agree that the Coen brothers are two of the most unique and brilliant film-makers working in cinema today. But their brilliance goes beyond awards (the surprise Oscar win for No Country for Old Men) and box office success (True Grit made almost $250 million worldwide). The Coens are a talent at truly surprising their fans by making wildly different and unexpected films. The followed No Country with the excellent A Serious Man, and now their next project may be a musical biopic.

According to the LA Times, the Coens are working on a story told in the world of Manhattan’s folk music scene in the 1950′s and 1960′s. They are basing the script on the life of Dave Van Ronk, pioneer of the Grenwich scene and mentor to a young folk singer known as Bob Dylan. Indeed, Van Ronk is referenced extensively in Dylan’s Chronicle memoirs.

The Coens hinted that music will be central to the film, and it will contain more naturalistic dialogue. While music featured heavily in O Brother Where Art Thou, it’s a big departure for the brothers going for looser dialogue, considering their scripts are normally incredibly tight and refined. But it’s also an incredibly exciting prospect to see established film-makers push themselves into new territory.

The only disappointing part about all this is that their planned adaptation of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union will be on hold for a while.

It really doesn’t take much to sell this movie.  I am sold and look forward to seeing the movie in a couple of weeks. The Coen Brothers are awesome filmmakers and the cast looks pure grit. Plus, it’s one of the best western stories ever told.

I see some fine performances in this trailer with Johnny Cash singing.

The cast is directed by the Coen Brothers and led by Jeff Bridges’ grizzled Marshal Reuben J Cogburn, Matt Damon’s LaBoeuf and Josh Brolin’s Ton Chaney. It also stars newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper, no relation in the casting.  True Grit will arrive in the movie theaters Christmas Day.  My daughter might be old enough to see this movie, but it’s the Coen brothers, perhaps I’ll wait and see what the reviewers say.

“Punishment Comes One Way or Another”  and “Retribution” I like that because it describes the essence of True Grit. The vintage look promotes the western quality of the movie, which I am truly excited about in the fullest of terms.

The cast is directed by the Coen Brothers and led by Jeff Bridges’ grizzled Marshal Reuben J Cogburn, Matt Damon’s LaBoeuf and Josh Brolin’s Ton Chaney. It also stars newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper, no relation in the casting.  True Grit will arrive in the movie theaters Christmas Day.  I only wish my daughter was old enough to see it.

The first trailer for True Grit excites me so much so that I am trying to type this as fast as I can to get it to you and everyone else who has marked their calendars on the arrival of Coen brothers next film. The lyrics sung throughout the trailer enthralls me to the bitter end of this story. 

As the trailer rolls we meet the cast led by Jeff Bridges’ grizzled Marshal Reuben J Cogburn, Matt Damon’s LaBoeuf and Josh Brolin’s Ton Chaney. It also stars newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper, no relation in the casting.  True Grit will arrive in the movie theaters Christmas Day.  I only wish my daughter was old enough to see it.

The much anticipated Coen Brothers True Grit is in production in Texas, and  Before the Trailer offered up a handful of pictures from the set.

Yes, this is what it’s like when you work on a set of a western, lots of sitting or standing around  with your horse, waiting for your 5 seconds of fame.

That said, do take a look at the above video and set pictures. It is worth the look because you will notice the Coen brothers’ diligence of authenticity and the magic of Hollywood.

Jeff Bridges is in discussions with Paramount to star in Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of True Grit. Bridgeswould play the role that won John Wayne an Oscar for the 1969 original. I think it will be tough for Bridges (or any actor) to follow Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn. I cherish Wayne’s performance and the movie.  There will be constant comparisons from critics and public at large. Yet, I do believe Bridges is the right actor to take this challenge and deliver a fine performance.

Bridges last worked with the brothers when he turned in a tour de force performance as Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski in the 1998.

The script has been redrafted by the brothers to be more faithful to the Charles Portis novel in which the original film was based.

The story is about a 14-year-old girl who follows an aging U.S. marshal, Rooster Cogburn, and another lawman to track the outlaw who killed her father. The new version will come from the girls’ point of view, whereas the original was told from Cogburn’s point of view.

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After two largely awful attempts at comedy (Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers), the Coen Brothers blew away the world of cinema with a potent adaptation of the novel No Country for Old Men, a philosophical glance at the role of violence in our life. They followed that up with a flawed but entertaining madcap comedy, Burn After Reading, and seem to be continuing in mood with their upcoming A Serious Man.

The trailer above is a well-crafted 90 seconds of footage that reveals little about the plot. Most probably because there is not much of a plot to this comedic drama. The story follows Larry Gopnik, an academic living and working in 1960s Minneapolis. After his wife wants to leave him it seems poor Larry is trying to find meaning and understanding in hiw life, which is falling apart around him due to the assistance of an utterly disfunctional family.

It’s interesting to see the Coen brothers make a film that seems particularly unambitious. Indeed, you’d almost risk believing that it’s the most personal film the directing duo have made, dealing with their childhood in Minneapolis and their academic parents. Is this the Coen brothers making a Woody Allen film? It’s hard to tell from the trailer, but the amusing attempt to construct Larry’s problems (being bashed against a wall, the hacking coughs of his apparently uncaring rabbi) into a soundtrack of anxiety works well to transform the concept of a humdrum life into a funny tale.

A Serious Man is released in the US in October.

The original True Grit is a classic in every sense of the word.  The cast alone (Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, and of course, the great John Wayne) puts it in everyone’s library.

Now, it’s in remake mode. Yikes!  None other than Joel and Ethan Coen will put their spin on True Grit, the iconic Western that won John Wayne an Oscar.

But Variety is reporting that it’s not a traditional remake, the Paramount film promises to be more devoted to the Charles Portis book than the 1969 movie.

Then I ask, why call it a remake?

Anyhow, Portis’ novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, in company with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, hunts down her father’s killer in hostile Indian Territory.

But while the original film was a showcase for Wayne, the Coens’ version will tell the tale from the girl’s perspective. Of course, the Coens wrote the screenplay.

Chances are with the Coens’ power we’ll see the movie in production, but let’s not call it a remake.

Today, folks, I’m going to introduce you to a movie that’s very close to my heart personally.  It’s one of my top five all-time favorites, and even after a dozen viewings it still stands up against the competition.  What, you may ask, is this movie that gives me so much joy?  It’s called O Brother Where Art Thou, and now more than ever, it’s the kind of movie we need.   If you’re at all familiar with this one going in, you may already be taken somewhat aback to discover that I think so very highly of a musical, but it’s true. I loved this movie.

Explaining the plot can be as easy as you want it to be—for instance, if I told you that the plot is Homer’s Iliad set in the Great Depression of the United States, well, that’d be a perfectly valid description.  But if you’re not familiar with classical Greek literature, I could just amplify it a bit and tell you it’s about George Clooney, here playing an erudite, pedantic desperado by the mouthful name of Ulysses Everett McGill, who’s just broken out of a chain gang somewhere in the South.  Piecing together some of the place names mentioned like Tishomingo, Itta Bena, and Yazoo suggests that they’re in Mississippi.  Anyway, Everett, as he’s called, has convinced his cohorts to break out along with him in search of buried treasure.  The three set out along a long and tortuous journey that brings them in contact with a Cyclops, sirens, and an insane pirate, among other surprising parallels to the original Greek.

As a comedy, it’s a rollicking romp with plenty of downright authentic musical cues including such peppy early twentieth century titles as “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”, “Keep On The Sunny Side of Life” and one of my personal favorite karaoke jams “Man of Constant Sorrow”.  The level of detail involved with the translation from the original Greek to a screenplay about the Depression is apt and surprisingly detail rich.

Even better, there will even prove to be some thrilling action sequences here as well, with narrow escapes and manic escapades being the order of the day.  Switches between the two seem almost seamless, and the humor balances well with the brief action sequences.

The performances are wonderfully solid and ultimately believable—watch for John Goodman to do an amazing job as a malevolent one-eyed Bible salesman.  Of course, everyone else turns in a fine job as well, whether they’re singing, dancing or running for their lives from an onrushing wall of water.

And just in case you were inclined to doubt, it even has a happy ending.  AND a trick happy ending, if that weren’t good enough on top of it.

Perhaps one of the truest signs of how good a movie is—or isn’t—is how long it lasts.  If the jokes are only funny once, if the shocks are only scary once, and if the drama is only tear-jerking once, it’s nowhere near as good as a movie that’ll make you laugh, cry or jump with sustained viewings.  O Brother Where Art Thou has made me laugh despite dozens of viewings since its release, and thus easily qualifies in the rank of good movie.