The past week or so has seen a handful of new titles assigned to upcoming movies. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut is now known as "Don Jon's Addiction," David Chase's period-based music movie is now called "Not Fade Away" and Kathryn Bigelow's Osama Bin Laden thriller has a fresh (working) title: "Zero Dark Thirty." And those are all fine changes, nothing too shocking and in keeping with what those films are about. But yet another movie has been given a new moniker, and we're less pleased about this one.
Variety writer Jeff Sneider has tweeted that Andrew Dominik's "Cogan's Trade" has been given a new, much more generic title of "Killing Them Softly." We suppose The Weinstein Company thinks that "killing" is a much sexier marquee word than "trade" — and they may be right — but now the movie sounds like any generic, straight-to-DVD actioner. The original title had the sort of pulp sheen of the material (and was the name of the book it's based on) but now it just all sounds much more rote.
Anyway, the film is led by Brad Pitt and is a comic crime caper/thriller based on the George V. Higgins novel about a mob enforcer (Pitt) trying to track down a pair of junkies who've ripped off a poker game. A ridiculously great cast including Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Bella Heathcote, Sam Shepard and Garrett Dillahunt are along for the ride, and frankly whatever this is called, we'll be watching anyway.
"Killing Them Softly" will hit theaters on September 21st.
Dumb idea all-around! "Killing Them Softly" is an idiotic title, please, please change it back to the original one…"Cogan's Trade"! I'm not interested in a Lifetime movie of the week…
It refers to a line in the script that Pitt's character delivers, chill the fuck out.
Awful title… They need to change it…to anything else.
Who cares? Have you ever watched a film and thought, "Man that *would* have been a great film, if only for the title …"
Sounds like a Steven Seagal title. On the covers it's always "Steven Seagal is" and then a three word title (Marked for Death, Out for Justice etc.). Steven Seagal is Killing Them Softly
I don't think it's THAT bad or generic a title.
Mcraj is right, the film had this title back when it was filming this time last year.
What a shame. This title seemed cloying when applied (with 'em shortened from them) to a misbegotten comic 1982 pic with Irene Cara that seemed to singlehandedly end George Segal's days as a movie star. The Company has obviously decided to fluff this one up a bit to differentiate between it and whichever of their Important Projects is revealed later to be that Predestined for Best Picture at the 2013 Oscars.
Sure, it makes me think of the song, but if this has a comedic tone then the new title may be more appropriate.
Yikes. "Killing Them Softly" sounds like something Billy Crystal would've starred-in in the 90's. That title is at complete odds with what that still of Pitt exudes.
I'm insulted.
Whoever made this decision should be fired. The movie now sounds like either a chick flick or a hip-hop song:
killing them softly with his song,
killing them softly,
with his song,
oooh, oooh, oooh
Strummin' my fingers
Calm the fuck down, people, Jesus.
Fucking awful decision.
THE F ! Cogan's Trade sounded so awesome. Probably the worst title change in movie history..
Horrible new title. Jesus, what's wrong with Cogan's Trade?
Yes, I preferred Cogan's Trade much more. Disappointing indeed. Oh, by the way, I was expecting this to be a crime drama but I read somewhere that it's a comedy, which confused me. Can anyone shed some light on that?
This has been in the works for ages, the film was at times referred to as "Killing Them Softly" in local New Orleans news articles during shooting, which leads me to believe is was probably more Dominik's doing. I don't mind the change, I think it plays on the fact that its a bit generic.