Paramount Pulls 'True Grit' Release Forward Three Days

Paramount announced Tuesday that it will now release True Grit three days earlier than originally planned, on Dec. 22.

The studio had scheduled Joel and Ethan Coen's new take on the Charles Portis novel to open on Christmas Day, a Saturday. But the Western, which stars Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Jeff Bridges in the iconic role that won John Wayne an Oscar in 1969, will now hit theaters on Wednesday to get an early jump on the long holiday weekend.

The move could be a sign of the studio's confidence in the picture, since the film will now go head-to-head with the Universal comedy Little Fockers and the Fox adventure-comedy Gulliver's Travels. Opening earlier will certainly bump the final box office numbers for the weekend window, but it will also throw reviews of the film up front with the others.

Sofia Coppola's Venice film festival winner Somewhere starts its Oscar-qualifying through Focus Features that Wednesday, and so does the Screen Gems musical drama Country Strong. Last year, Bridges himself benefited from the late-season entry of Crazy Heart, another country music drama that won him an Academy Award for best actor. Gwyneth Paltrow plays a similar lived-in role, and now Bridges is entering the awards season playing Rooster Cogburn, which won Wayne his only statue.