Jeff Bridges Returns As Dude Lebowski

Jeff Bridges made White Russians and bowling cool again as the character of The Dude in the Coen brothers comedy classic The Big Lebowski. Now it seems he’s returned to that role, according to Cinema Blend.

In a new short film commissioned by Kahlua, Jeff Bridges stars as an unnamed man at a bar, but he’s drinking a White Russian and looking like an older version of The Dude.

Bridges narrates the first half of the four-minute piece, recounting a time when he was very young working as a coffee truck driver in Mexico. He talks about how an opportunity presented itself to him, and he was looking… looking, until he got lucky. The film shows a young guy digging in the desert until he finds a briefcase. Inside, Jeff says, “was everything I ever wanted.”

Cut to two cars racing down the desert highway. In the first car are two menancing-looking men. The young Jeff Bridges character hears them coming and knows they’re after him. He runs back to his coffee truck and something inexplicable happens.

Jeff Bridges narrates what happened next.

“There was this weird sound… then, BAM! Out of the sky falls this… guy. A cosmonaut. I don’t know how, but he knows exactly what to do. I heard later an electrical storm had messed with his gear, so he had to bust out of his rocket or somesuch. Me? I think he fell from the heavens. An angel. Here to save my sorry ass.”

Jeff Bridges sits in a dim bar recounting the strange tale to a bartender as a jazz band slinks through a soundtrack of sorts on stage.

Take a look at Jeff Bridges in The White Russian.

So, will Jeff Bridges ever return to the role of Dude Lebowski in a full-on theatrical sequel or prequel of The Big Lebowski? We’re betting not.

The closest we might ever get to see is the cast of the cult film — which included not only Bridges, but John Turturro, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman — bowling on the Nerdist’s All Star Celebrity Bowling. Chris Hardwick and pals have bowled against the casts of Mad Men, Conan O’Brien, Breaking Bad, and Doctor Who on the Nerdist YouTube channel show. When Jeff Bridges last appeared on the latest Nerdist Podcast last month, Hardwick suggested that Bridges get the cast of The Big Lebowski back for a bowl-off, and Jeff thought it was a great idea.

Kind of a neat aside, Jeff Bridges brought up an interesting tidbit on the Nerdist Podcast: In The Big Lebowski, you never see Jeff Bridges’ character, The Dude, bowl a single frame.

[Image via kahrtalk]