The most important casting in the Joel Coen and Ethan Coen‘s new adaptation of Charles Portis’s 1968 novel, True Grit, is the role of main character Mattie Ross. After an intense audition process that saw the likes of 15,000 or so teenage girls, the part was given to 13-year-old relative unknown Hailee Steinfeld.

Back in March we received the excellent news that film making masterminds Joel and Ethan Coen would be making a new movie based on the 1968 story by Charles Portis, True Grit (Read: Coen Brothers To Return “˜True Grit’ To The Screen). The story went on to become a 1969 movie starring John Wayne, which netted the legendary actor an Oscar. The first actor whose name has been attached to the project is none other than the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges. Bridges is currently in talks with Paramount to reunite with his Big Lebowski directors and appear in the movie as Rooster Cogburn — the same Academy Award winning role that Wayne played.

The movie follows a 14-year old girl whose father is murdered by his hired hand. She employs the assistance of an infamous old drunk of a U.S. Marshal named Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn (Bridges), who obtains honest and true grit (ta-da!), to track the killer down and get her revenge. The original film followed Wayne’s character, but it is expected that this new movie will be more book-faithful and follow the young girl.

Joel and Ethan Coen will take their turn in the old west with the announcement that they will be adapting the original Charles Portis novel, True Grit. The book was first adapted into a movie in 1969, which starred the one and only John Wayne. The performance earned the legendary actor an Oscar.

True Grit tells the story of a young girl who, after her father is murdered, hires a drunk old Marshal to help find the killer. In the original, John Wayne played the Marshal, named Rooster Cogburn (also the title of the sequel), and he was the main character. In this new Coen Brothers version, the story will be more faithful to the book, and be told from the perspective of the young girl.