Joel and Ethan Coen talk TRUE GRIT. The Project Isn’t As Far Along As We Thought

Just a few days ago, we posted a story about Jeff Bridges joining the Coen Brothers in their upcoming movie “True Grit”. When the story went online, we all assumed this was definitely the brothers next project and more casting would be announced soon. But that might not be the case. The reason I say this is, I just spoke with the brothers during a roundtable interview for their new film “A Serious Man” and they told me, “We don’t have a go ahead on this movie. We don’t have a cast – or the rest of it. Hopefully it’ll happen. It’s just in the talking stages right now.” More after the jump:

The vibe I got in the room when I asked about working with Jeff Bridges again was the announcement got out early. I think someone screwed up releasing the news, as the brothers were very guarded when talking about “True Grit”. Here’s exactly what they said:

Collider: What was it about “True Grit” that made you want to do it as your next project?

Ethan Coen: Hopefully we’ll do it, but it’s not definite. Well it’s just a really good book. That’s the long and short of it…it’s just a great book. While there are a lot of great books, it’s a great book that seems like there is room to have a good movie made from it…which maybe hasn’t happened yet. (lots of laughter in the room)

Collider: And you guys are working with Jeff Bridges again.

Joel Coen: Hopefully. We’ll see. We’ve been talking to him. We don’t know. Nothing is definite. We don’t have a go ahead on this movie. We don’t have a cast – or the rest of it. Hopefully it’ll happen. It’s just in the talking stages right now.

While I wanted to ask some follow up questions, we ran out of time. Hopefully another room got more. If they did, I’ll update the story. More from Toronto very soon.