Kevin Smith’s ‘Cop Out’ Trailer, Title Explanation

Published by Jeff Leins on: December 27th, 2009

Warner Bros has released a trailer for Kevin Smith’s latest film, Cop Out.  While the writer/director usually whips up his own foul-mouthed screenplays and casts his friends (for mixed results), Smith’s latest was written by someone else and stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.

Here’s the trailer (also viewable in high-resolution at Apple) and below is the explanation of why it has a generic buddy cop movie title.

The repeat game and knock knock jokes?

The February 2010 movie was originally titled A Couple of Dicks, a clever double entendre on two detectives and a pair of male genitals.  Not surprisingly, the studio wasn’t thrilled with the name.  The movie was shot under the original title from the script by Mark and Robb Cullen, but a name change discussion was inevitable after the problems Smith had selling Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Smith explains the change, which he likens to losing his own dick.  The big three television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) refused to show spots advertising a movie with “Dicks” in the title before 9 pm.  It might not be a problem for an R-rated film, except WB plans to target the sports crowd and college football is a prime slot for hitting Smith’s college age demographic and male fans of Willis.

As for selecting the new name, it apparently went down exactly as you might imagine.  “We went from a really clever title to the least clever title of all time. I was like, “God that title is going to feel like such a f—ing cop out,” Smith said. “And [the producer] goes, “We should just call the movie that.’” It sounds like the meeting where executives decided Alvin and the Chipmunks should be called “the squeakquel.”  Smith said he was ultimately happy with the name because it sounds like an 80’s cop movie.  That’s a good thing?