Following a great first clip, we’ve got another brief look at Andrew Dominik‘s follow-up to The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, the ensemble crime drama Killing Them Softly. With the film previously going under Cogan’s Trade, this new clip should give some explanation as to the switch, as Brad Pitt reveals to Richard Jenkins just exactly why he murders people the way he does. And if that isn’t enough, the director himself has explained the title in a USA Today interview.
He first remarked about the first clip featuring Ray Liotta, saying “the worst is yet to come for” the character and then went into the post-production coming down to the wire. The only reason we haven’t seen a trailer yet is because they completed the film last week, but considering it hits in the fall, I assume we can expect one this summer.
As for the title change, he said the film was always going to be called Killing Them Softly, but he didn’t want to emphasis the delivery of the line by Pitt, as seen below in this new clip. Dominik was afraid to create too much of a “fuss” about the line and remarked, “There’s a danger that the actor might make a meal out of the line” and as for the title of Cogan’s Trade, he said that “kind of sounds like a Clint Eastwood title…from 1972.”
Dominik ultimately went with Killing Them Softly because it sounded like an “actual movie” title to him. I feel the opposite, but we’ll see if it fits for the film soon, when it premieres at Cannes on May 22nd. Check out the clip below from IGN.
Based on George V. Higgins‘ novel, which has dark comedy elements and violence, the crime drama follows ”a professional enforcer who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-protected poker game.” The cast also includes James Gandolfini, Sam Shepard, Garret Dillahunt, Max Casella, Bella Heathcote, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn and Vincent Curatola.
Killing Them Softly hits theaters September 21st.