(“The Civil War is over, Lebowski. The bums lost.”)

Charles Portis is sort of a cult-favorite writer whose best-known work is probably True Grit, which spawned a movie adaptation that won John Wayne an Oscar in 1969.  Portis has been called a more comedic version of Cormac McCarthy, whose book No Country for Old Men won the Coen Brothers a best picture Oscar in 2007.  Now the Coens are re-adapting True Grit, and Variety reports that they’re in talks with The Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, for the lead.

For the unfamiliar, True Grit follows a 14-year-old girl, who tags along with a U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) as they attempt to track down her father’s murderer, who is something of a drunk. But the murderer is not anyone that the police want to mess with, so Rooster is all she’s got. A Texas Ranger named La Boeuf also joins the manhunt; Cogburn and La Boeuf dont’ care for each other, but in the pursuit of the murderer, they bond.

The 1969 John Wayne movie was told from the perspective of Cogburn; the Coens version, like the novel, will tell it from the perspective of the 14-year-old girl (presumably, like the novel, as an extended flashback). [Pajiba]

I hope they not only tell it from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl, but contemporize it and have it unfold via her Twitter feed.   OMG, you guyz, Rooster cockbreath & the Shia Labuff guy tooootally aren’t getting along!  We beter find daddy’s killer soon, i have joBros tickets for tomorrow >:-T