How to make god laugh? Make a plan, goes the old adage. Often times a plan is put in place, but then one piece falls out of the puzzle and you have chaos. To wit: yesterday, a user on our site posted a comment that said The Weinstein Company’s prohibition drama the “Wettest County” — directed by John Hillcoat and starring a stellar cast that includes Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman and Mia Wasikowska — had changed its title to “Lawless.” And as we know, the author of the book recently revealed on Twitter that the title was indeed changing.
To the internets! The first Google result that comes up is the unofficial “Wettest County” twitter account that had posted yesterday that the film has changed its title to “Lawless” (if we had a screencap, we’d show you). Five minutes later we emailed TWC for official confirmation. Crickets. …And the next thing you know, the tweet had been deleted by the “Wettest County” unofficial account (though remnants of that conversation still exist).
Coincidence? Honestly, we don’t think so. Yes, 2 + 2 = 5 “journalism” does suck, but we think the studio's keeping mum (and likely asking for the tweet to come down) for a good reason.
The potential wrinkle? “Lawless” is also the title of Terrence Malick’s upcoming film starring Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and Natalie Portman, you know, the new Malick film that centers on sexual obsession and betrayal. And FilmNation is a producer on both films. We would assume Harvey Weinstein doesn’t really care though and with “Law…” errr… “Wettest County” coming out on August 31st (with a Venice bow to likely coincide), we’d assume “The Punisher” will do everything he can to ensure his movie catches the most audience flies possible (as it will likely roll out in limited release and grow from there). And if that includes a title change that steps on others' toes, well, it wouldn’t be the first time. To be continued….
