We’ve been following the story of the re-naming of Kevin Smith’s new film A Couple Of Dicks to the more subversive Cop Out all this month, in anticipation of the release of the film’s trailer. Well, the trailer is here – you can check it out below or wait and see it starting Christmas Day in theaters – and Smith has talked with Entertainment Weekly’s Insider Blog about what went on behind the scenes with the name change.
Warner Bros. decided, “Hey man, we’ll call the networks and see if we’re going to get any problems [with A Couple of Dicks as a title], months before the movie’s ever going to come out.” The top 3 networks — CBS, ABC, NBC — said we can’t run one of your spots before 9 o’clock.
I’m like, “Well what about Inglourious Basterds?” And I guess, because of the spelling, they got away with it. So we were like, “Can we call it A Couple of D.I.C.s?” Because that’s the proper acronym for detectives, Detective In Charge. And [the networks] kicked that back as well. It was the pluralizing of any form of dick, whether it was d-i-c-k or any derivation.
So my feeling was like, it’s an R-rated movie, so who the f— are we talking to anyway before 9 o’clock? Warner Bros’s feeling was like, “Hey man, the sports audience, dickhead. We have to advertise to the sports audience on Saturday and Sunday and all those sporting events usually take place before 9 p.m. in the evening.” At which point, I was like, “Oh wow, you guys are way smarter than me.”
With his typical self-deprecating sense of humor, Smith goes on to talk about how as the guy who made Jersey Girl, he has no strings to pull in Hollywood to get to keep the original title and the almost accidental way they came upon their current title.
In the meantime, it is nice to see that the Warner Brothers trailer people have put together a pretty good two minutes and 27 seconds sample of what’s in store from Smith and stars Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis. And despite the title change, I think the trailer makes it abundantly clear that these two characters are indeed a couple of dicks.
