Joel and Ethan Coen’s True Grit is moving towards a very, very cool cast. We already know that Jeff Bridges will play the role originated by John Wayne, Rooster Cogburn. Cogburn is an aging U.S. Marshal who travels with another lawman and a 14 year-old girl in search of an outlaw that killed her father. While the original was a starring vehicle for Wayne, the Coens plan to adapt the book it was based on more faithfully, and tell the tale from the girl’s perspective.

Now Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are in talks to join the cast as well, setting the stage to make this one of the most anticipated projects of next year. Damon would play the fellow lawman, a Texas Ranger, while Brolin would play the killer. The girl has yet to be cast.

Jason Bourne, Llewelyn Moss, and The Dude in a Coen Bros. Western? There’s no way this new isn’t going to incite all sorts of fanboy buzz, and I’m right there with them. The casting of the girl will be key, but the rest of the cast is already so strong that I think they could anchor anyone in the lead role. Brolin, despite his great turn as good-guy Moss, plays a fantastic villain, and I’m excited to see Damon join his fellow A-list pals in jumping aboard a Coen-steered movie, as George Clooney and Brad Pitt did last year in Burn After Reading. The film is hoping to start shooting in the spring, and I think movie fans everywhere will be just as anxious to see this get into production as soon as possible.

How do you guys feel about this casting coup?

Also, the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man gets a nifty poster. Not quite as sweet as the trailer, but sweet nonetheless. It debuted via Focus Features’ Twitter feed, which we now bring to you for your bleak and darkly humorous enjoyment. Check it out (this one’s embiggable, too):

A Serious Man goes into limited release starting October 2, 2009.

Here’s the plot synopsis for the film, which is set for a limited release on October 2, 2009:

“A Serious Man” is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and “F-Troop” is on TV. 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?

The Coen Brothers have picked their next film! They will next adapt Charles Portis’ “True Grit,” a western about a 14 year-old girl who tracks her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory with the aid of an aging U.S. Marshal and another lawman. The book was already adapted once, as the iconic 1969 western that won John Wayne his Oscar. The Coens, however, will treat their film not as a remake, but as a more faithful adaptation of the novel. Wayne’s version was a starring vehicle for him, but the Coens’ version will take the point of view of the girl.

The Coens are next in theaters with their black comedy A Serious Man, which is currently in post-production and slated for a release later this year. I’m anxious to see them tackle a true western after their success with the neo-western No Country For Old Men. If this is indeed the same project that they first talked about back in 2007, then we should expect lots of violence and a particularly memorable scene involving a chicken. I’m excited.

Focus Features’ 2009 slate is looking very promising. Sure, it’s short on blockbusters, but that’s never really been their bag anyway. It looks like aside from Coraline and 9, we haven’t reported on any of their other projects. Their 2009 slate includes:

Sin Nombre, Cary Joji Fukanaga’s dramatic thriller about Central American immigrants seeking the promise of America. Starring Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Diana García, Luis Fernando Peña, and Héctor Jiménez, it premieres at Sundance this month and opens in limited release March 20th.

The Limits of Control, Jim Jarmusch’s latest film about a mysterious lone outlaw who treks through contemporary Spain. It stars Isaach De Bankole, Gael Garcia Bernal, Paz De La Huerta, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, and Bill Murray. It opens May 22nd.

Away We Go, with Sam Mendes at the helm and Dave Eggers writing. The movie follows an expectant couple (John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph) as they journey across America in search of a suitable place to settle down and raise a family. Also starring Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gylllenhaal, Allison Janney, Catherine O’Hara, and Paul Schneider, the film opens June 5th.

Taking Woodstock, Ang Lee’s newest film, which centers on the origin of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. It’s written by James Scahmus and based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte. Starring Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton, Eugene Levy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Liev Schreiber, Taking Woodstock opens on August 14th.

A Serious Man, the Coen brothers’ latest film, which is set in 1967 and revolves around a Minnesota man struggling to become a righteous person even as his domestic life collapses around him. Starring Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed, Richard Kind, Aaron Wolf, and Jessica McManus, this film opens October 2nd. Collider has a cool production still from this movie, featuring Joel and Ethan Coen and cinematographer extraordinaire Roger Deakins.

Head on over to Collider to find out more about these films and see a few images, too.