True Grit (1969 film) Their adaptation focuses more on Mattie's point of view, as in the novel, and is more faithful to its Oklahoma setting. Hailee Steinfeld portrays Mattie Ross, Jeff Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn, and the cast also includes Matt Damon as La Boeuf and Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney. True Grit (1969 film) True Grit is a 1969 American western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Kim Darby as Mattie Ross and John Wayne as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. It is the first film adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Marguerite Roberts.
The Frisco Kid Gene Wilder's autobiography, "Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art", the Tommy Lillard role, played by Harrison Ford, was originally planned for John Wayne. John J. Puccio of Movie Metropolis writes that Wayne was "eager to take it on as a comic follow-up to "True Grit" and "Rooster Cogburn". Salary concerns nixed the idea, though, and it's questionable he would have finished the shooting, in any case, as he died shortly before "The Frisco Kid" opened." (Another source says Wayne did not want to make the film due to "vulgarity" in the script.) Wilder said he