The Coen Brothers’ Christmas remake of True Grit hits DVD and Blu-ray today (finally), flush off the success off 10 Oscar nominations and a domestic box office haul of over $170 million (making it, by a long shot, the Coens biggest hit to date). Its runaway success and high quality gave us pause, since we spend quite a bit of time deriding the overload of remakes in the moviemaking business today — yet another example (along with the endless stream of sequels, TV show adaptations, and even board game movies) of nervous suits who are only comfortable giving the green light to the familiar. But every once in a while, a remake comes along that not only matches its predecessor, but tops it. After the jump, check out our list of ten remakes that were better than the original.

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Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse, arguably the greatest movie theater in the country, has spent the last couple of summers taking their show on the road, as it were, with the “Rolling Roadshow” series — classic movies shown for free in relevant settings, like last summer’s screenings of The Blues Brothers in Joliet, Illinois and Dirty Harry in San Francisco’s Washington Square Park. This year, they’re staying in Texas (though still taking their films out to their shooting locations). How, then, are those of us in the other 49 expected to enjoy the series? Well, we can enjoy the very cool custom posters designed for the series by artist Jason Munn. Check out all ten after the jump.

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As you’ve perhaps noticed, we love to showcase the clever graphic artists who are revisiting classic films (from the distant and more recent past) and creating new posters with a more inventive bent than your typical studio one-sheet. The folks at Silver Screen Society have taken what they call a “book club” approach, selecting a film each month for their collective of designers and friends to take a crack at. The results are inventive, stimulating, and fun. It’s a fairly new site; they began in February, tackling 28 Days Later, followed by I Heart Huckabees in March, The Third Man in April, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? this month. We’ve selected some of our favorites after the jump; you can check out the growing collection on their Tumblr.

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According to Jacket Copy, filmmaker Ethan Coen, one half of the cult brotherly team that brought us great films like “No Country For Old Men,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “True Grit,” among others, is coming out with a new book of poetry, to be published by Crown in the spring of 2012. Which, in case you’ve forgotten, would see the book, entitled “The Day The World Ends,” printed just in time to get a couple readers before the Mayan-predicted end of the world. How very Coen-esque.

“The Day The World Ends” will be Coen’s second book of poetry – the first, entitled “The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way,” was published in 2009. He is also the author of a book of short stories, entitled “Gates of Eden.”

Do you enjoy quoting The Big Lebowski while lounging in a bathrobe, sipping on a White Russian? Can you deliver Jules and Vincent’s “Royale with Cheese” dialogue from Pulp Fiction verbatim? Well, then we have some exciting news for you! Beginning on April 7th, New York’s Bold Hype Gallery will be hosting a three-day pop-up show featuring works from over 100 artists who have been inspired by the films of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers. Click through to preview a selection of the art that will be on display.

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Good news for Coen Brothers fans (and really, if you’re not one, we’re not quite sure what to do with you): their long-circulating script for Gambit, a remake of the 1966 British caper, goes before the cameras this May, with freshly Oscared Colin Firth in the leading role, Cameron Diaz as his leading lady, and Soapdish director Michael Hoffman at the helm. While we’d be a tiny bit more excited if the Coens were directing it themselves, this is still good news — especially because their True Grit was that rarest of beasts, a remake that respected (and, in our eyes anyway, topped) the original.

It’s no secret that Hollywood has gone remake crazy; along with endless sequels and mindless 3-D, the film business’s insistence on remaking any movie made before 1990 that turned more than a five dollar profit is perhaps its most irritating quality. But lest we forget, The Maltese Falcon was a remake; so were The Thing, The Departed, and Scarface. So, in the interest of putting a positive spin on remake-mania, we took a look at the dozens of remakes in the pipeline and found ten that we’re genuinely excited about. Check them out after the jump.
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UK illustrator Dan Sherratt is one of the most gifted of the current crop of graphic artists who are bringing modern tools and concepts to the movie poster format, creating eye-catching new art for classic pictures and modern favorites. The prolific artist posts regularly at eatsleeplivefilm.com and at his own Shop Reworking Titles blog, in addition to being a featured artist at Reelizer. Dan’s latest series really caught our eye: it’s an inventive trio of posters for the films of Christopher Nolan. Check them out after the jump, along with some of our other favorites from Sherratt’s sites.

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Only a few weeks after our most recent Snowmageddon, another blizzard is brewing for the Northeast. Since that may mean a snow day for many of our readers — and we bet no small number of you got your yearly snow-playing out of the way last month — we’ve devised a way for you to frolic in a winter wonderland without ever leaving the cozy comfort of your couch. The films we’ve rounded up aren’t just set in cold climates; they’re full-on sensory experiences that immerse you in a world of snow and ice.

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1. Game on, Google: Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies have invested $500 million into Facebook in a deal that values the social network at $50 billion — which is more than eBay, Yahoo!, and Time Warner. [via Gawker]

2. Little Fockers took the New Year’s weekend box office, raking in over $26 million in ticket sales. In second place was True Grit, which made almost $25 million (and is now the Coen Brothers’ highest grossing film ever), followed by Tron: Legacy 3D, which took in a little over $18 million. [via Deadline]

3. In case you missed it, on New Year’s Eve Lady Gaga tweeted, “THE SONG 2 13 11 THE RECORD 5 23 11,” meaning of course, that her much-discussed third album, Born This Way, finally has a release date: May 23rd. [via Vulture]

4. David Arquette checked himself into rehab over the holiday weekend, and is seeking treatment for alcohol and other issues — but not drugs. [via TMZ]

5. After almost seven years of dating, Mila Kunis and Macaulay Culkin have split up, according to her rep. A source says that it happened a while back, but they decided to keep things quiet while she promoted Black Swan. [via NYP]

Bonus link: New Yorker Four Loko Cartoon

Today at Flavorpill, we found solace in the fact that Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister” topped Maura Johnston’s list of the 20 worst songs of the year. We played pin the mustache on Hall & Oates and looked at 15 of the greatest mustaches in Coen Brothers history. We read a 6-year-old’s scathing review of the Spider-Man musical. We enjoyed Videogum’s retrospective of the best viral videos of 2010. We were surprised by how drunk the Tri-State Area is. We wondered how much Julian Assange is getting paid by Knopf to write his memoirs. We watched Paula Abdul slur inspirational things in the teaser clip for her upcoming show, Live to Dance. We found it hard to believe that a Blu supporter really vandalized Jeffrey Deitch’s bathroom. We were creeped out by this animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Christmas poem “Nicholas Was…” And finally, we loved the cover of the latest issue of Seattle Weekly so much that we wanted to gay marry it.