I’ve been keen to read Joel and Ethan Coen‘s True Grit script for a while now. This morning a draft of it (their third, dated 6.12.09) arrived in my inbox. I was dazzled right away by the robust poetic flavor of the Old West dialogue, which I presume is partly taken from the Charles Portis novel. There’s hardly a single line that resembles the English spoken today in the U.S. of Eloi, and it’s pure pleasure. True Grit-speak is as specifically unto itself as the Elizabethan English spoken during William Shakespeare‘s day.

The Coens being the Coens, the story is grittier, more character-rich and funnier (in their usual sardonic oddball way) than the one used for the 1969 Henry Hathaway version with John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glenn Campbell. Jeff Bridges is going to have a field day as Rooster Cogburn, but then we knew that going in.

The Coens are apparently intending to cast an unknown as Mattie Ross, from whose perspective the story unfolds and who supplies the narration. They held an open casting call in Tulsa, Oklahoma about a month ago, and reportedly put out the word that “no acting experience is necessary.” The Oklahoman‘s Brandy McDonnell wrote that Mattie is “to be a simple, tough-as-nails 14-year-old…steely nerves, straightforward manner.” She cautioned that “hopefuls are advised not to make the mistake of trying to appear like or imitate Kim Darby, who played Mattie Ross in the original film.” And “no make-up model types.”

The Rotten Tomato ratings so far for Garry Marshall‘s Valentine’s Day (currently running at 14% positive) are easily the worst of the year. Then again, the year is only five weeks old. An industry friend confides that “even the stars at the premiere were appalled at how bad it is…it starts with the script.” Will this have even a faint effect upon the interest levels of Eloi women?

The green-lighting of Mission Impossible 4 means that Paramount believes that Tom Cruise has moved past his nutter rep and everything’s jake again. But JJ Abrams‘ decision to produce rather than direct means there are intuitions that the potential response may be less than ecstatic. If they get a journeyman to direct, Joe Popcorn will smell “boilerplate” and react accordingly. M:I:4 will be released Memorial Day weekend of 2011.

Here‘s a British-made short (directed by Richard Curtis, starring Bill Nighy) pushing the idea of a Robin Hood banker’s tax. Good thinking, should be enacted here.

A few days ago I linked to the rear-entry Sports Illustrated cover photo of Olympic skiing star Lindsay Vonn. I noted the implication only to be told by several HE responders that I was reading too much into it, etc. Here‘s a photo of Vonn from another issue that’s a bit more explicit.

Mark Adnum, the Australian writer and editor of Outrate, has thoroughly explained why giving a Best Actress Oscar to Meryl Streep for Julie and Julia is a bad idea.

“Putting fandom and loyalty aside,” he writes, “does anyone really think that her performance in Julie and Julia is so great that it needs to be recognized with the same prize given to her work in Sophie’s Choice? Giving Streep an Oscar for a performance that can’t hold a candle to those that she deservedly won for — as Dustin Hoffman‘s unstable young wife in Kramer vs. Kramer and as the undead Auschwitz survivor who makes her ghostly way through a doomed new life in Sophie’s Choice — would only undermine her Oscar legacy.”

I’m sensing that the Streep yacht is taking on water and listing to the side. The sleek Mulligan sailfish, as Tony Curtis once said, is in “ship-ship-shape.” And the Bullock schooner — representing the Best Actress contender favored by hinterland women and their go-along husbands — is catching the big gusts.

Earlier today The Playlist posted a Vimeo rendering of “Che and the Digital Cinema Revolution,” a 33-minute documentary about the RED digital camera that was used to shoot Steven Soderbegh‘s two-part epic and its effect on modern film production.

Che and the Digital Cinema Revolution from high rez on Vimeo.

How many years has the Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges movie been in preparation? Since at least 2004, which is when the New Yorker‘s Ian Parker wrote about the project as well as the Farrelly’s hope that they might get Russell Crowe to portray Moe. The project is cursed. The only thing that can save it is Mel Gibson signing on.

On 12.2.09 Cinematical‘s Monika Bartyzel, following-up on a Variety announcement, reported that Paul Thomas Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman would be teaming up for a new flick “about a man who creates his own religion.” The feature would cost in the vicinity of $35 million with Hoffman playing “the Master,” an L. Ron Hubbardish figure “who starts a faith-based organization in the 1950s. He teams up with a twentysomething drifter named Freddie who becomes his lieutenant until the kid finds himself questioning the faith he’s gotten himself involved in.”

In its announcement story, Variety wrote that “the drama does not so much scrutinize self-started churches like Scientology or the Mormons, as much as it explores the need to believe in a higher power, the choice of which one to embrace and the point at which a belief system graduates into a religion.”

That’s a smokescreen statement. I was sent a copy of PTA’s untitled script yesterday and while I haven’t read all of it, it sure reads like a Scientology critique to me. I’m particularly thinking of a line near the end in which Hoffman’s “Master” presents a contact that he wants Freddie to sign that stipulates he “will serve the Cause above all other laws and regulations in this or any other neighboring galaxy for three billion years.” That sounds kinda Hubbardy…no?

I know Steven Soderbergh‘s forthcoming virus movie, called Contagion, is going to thrill and enthrall because there’s nothing better than when a idiosyncratic high-integrity helmer goes down the primal popcorn route. Except I really don’t want to see a virus movie about pale-faced people staggering around with their noses bleeding and sores on their cheeks. I don’t want that stuff in my head. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson, “Go sell virus someplace else — we’re all stocked up here.” (The Playlist‘s Rodrigo Perez has the scoop.)

We’re all expecting the humor is be sharp and bee-stingy during Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin‘s hosting of the 3.7 Oscar Awards. But it’s highly unusual for an official Oscar poster to sell the hosts rather than the event itself…no? Hasn’t every previous poster just settled on some new rendering of the classic iconography?