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Are you actually saying you didn't know before today that Kevin Smith had directed this film? Or were you putting yourself in the general public's place?

Also, if I'm not mistaken, on the TV commercials, I don't recall seeing Joe Johnston's name for Wolfman.

Joe Johnston isn't quite as distinctive a director as Kevin Smith, whose only genre thus far has been "Kevin Smith movies."

Now that Smith's making a big studio movie, will he still be able to get individual critics he doesn't like kicked out of the all-media screening?

I know it's exactly the kind of divisive thing that annoys a lot of people, but that last beat of the trailer with Tracy Morgan going, "No... no! No... HELL no... NO, etc." gets me every time. Funny as hell.

Cop Out was not on my radar until it was advertised. So yeah... my first awareness.

And I agree that when a Kevin Smith movie is sold, there is a lot of Kevin Smith talk... not so with Joe Johnston, unless they namecheck some of his films.

I guess you're not following Smith on twitter.
Anyhow, I'm surprised that you hadn't heard it after the kerfuffle of its name change from A Couple of Dicks etc.
I think that it will do pretty well, and at the end of the day, Smith maintains that for his wide release trailers he's never had his name mentioned. I'm not gonna check youtube to see if he's correct, but it's worth mentioning.

Smith has been discussing Cop Out for months on Twitter, and his director credit is readily apparent on all advertising. I don't understand why you posted this. - Ebner

Wasn't the last time that Kevin Smith directed a non-Kevin Smith movie Jersey Girl? I'd hardly call that a typical Kevin Smith movie.

Smith has said repeatedly on Twitter that he abhors "A Kevin Smith Film," and hasn't had it (or been mentioned in ads) for years.

it'd be great if the movie was hilarious. but the ads have been kind of crappy.

Sean William Scott repeating everything somebody says? Yikes. That is not a recipe for hilarity.

I wonder how Smith will do with tighter reins.

So A Couple of Dicks decided to Cop Out on the title.

While yes, I've known since day one that this was a Kevin Smith-directed film (because I cruise movie sites all day long...sad, sad, sad...), it's interesting because so much time, effort, money and PR was spent developing the Kevin Smith brand AS a brand that to then decide to do a complete 180 and not mention it at all is unusual. Imagine if "Drag Me to Hell" never mentioned Raimi once or, say, if you suddenly found out that "Legion" was a Tarantino movie. Those new "Shutter Island" commercials, taking a page from "Avatar" where they list Scorsese's credits all in a row (a'la "Righteous Kill's" rolling off Pacino/De Niro credits) take the brand thing even further and thereby almost shackling the film to the makers (Scorsese in the NYTimes yesterday being all like, "Well, it started as an 'entertainment' rings true, though now, of course, it's absolutely a "Martin Scorsese Joint"), so Warners choosing NOT to do it on "Cop Out" says something very specific about how they feel about the Kevin Smith brand.

For me, at least, it's been interesting watching the marketing roll out. I mean, it didn't really compute to me until the last minute that "Surrogates" was a Jonathan Mostow movie as they didn't do the whole "'Edge of Darkness,' from the director of 'Casino Royale'-thing," and I think I would've been a bit more excited to see the thing as, well, I'm a fan of Mostow.

There's also the case to be made that Warners figures Every Single Last Kevin Smith Fan is already in the tank for "Cop Out," so why even try to alienate even one single potential audience-member who might be turned off to what they interpret to be the Kevin Smith brand?

I think he asked the twitterverse for ideas for the new title too...so there you go. I guess.

SJR is right. The trailer and spots for INSIDE MAN made absolutely no mention of Spike Lee, fearing it would turn off people for what was strictly a popcorn movie. Spike evidently was OK with this.

Kevin's said in dvd special features that he hates "A Film By" and "A Kevin Smith" credits and will never take one. Perhaps it's his call not to have it blasting "A Kevin Smith film"?

Isn't this sort of like starting a rumor to fill space? Why not do the journalistic thing and make a call to Kevin or WB marketing and ask why there's not giant "A Film BY!" or "A KEVIN SMITH Film!" on all the film's marketing?

Ebner - Huh?

First, Kevin said, in the piece that Ray linked, that he has learned to let the marketers do what they do and to not get in the way with concerns about being edgy or even showing the funny stuff.

Second, if you can read Kevin's name on any outdoor you are not standing close enough to that you could read the name of a quoter on it, let me know. And I just went to the Apple trailer page and yes, his name is listed as director and if you watch the 2nd page of credits on the trailer, his credit is there. And indeed, if you look at the WB site for the movie, you can see his name there in gray, same size as the third producer and Kevin Pollack.

All of this is fine... and legal. But how can you not get that this is, in the world of selling Kevin Smith Films, an oddity?

I expect the same thing on Gondry's Green Hornet. And if the movie is nothing like other Gondry, I will get that. And if it has real Gondry-esque elements, I will see it as consumer fraud on some level. I don't feel that way here. But WB namechecks three movies, three actors, and keeps the visuals moving in the style of Bruckheimer/Silver movies in the ads... the trailer has a little more time to be more Smith-y.

And yeah, others, I have a very small group of twitterers I follow. Controlling the amount of info coming in has become a priority, though of all movie people, Mr. Smith might be an amusing add.

Even the marketing for Zach & Miri downplayed the Kevin Smith factor.

And someone up above already nailed it - Smith fans are already in. This is in hopes of drawing in those that would turn away from a Kevin Smith movie.

And, since this is the first film he's directed that he didn't write himself, it's not really a "Kevin Smith movie" in the way that his others really are.

I too was surprised to find out it was a Kevin Smith.

As a huge, huge Kevin Smith fan, I'd be somewhat annoyed if I went to COP OUT thinking it was a Kevin Smith joint and discovering it was a studio written buddy-cop pic without the Smith language and raunchiness. So, I think it's a good idea to keep him off the front page with this. Granted, all big Smith fans know he directed this so I doubt any would truly be peeved at a misrepresentation.

I can't wait to hear Smith rat out Willis who I guess was a MEGA prick in the shooting of this movie.

I would also like to add I had to stop following Smith's twitter...by far the most annoying, repetitive, stupid celeb twitter out there. Unless you like reading stoner tweets from the shitter about banging his wife. Zzzzz.

The piece DP just linked to was written by me for my Student Union website (I was not expecting it to get nearly as much circulation as it did), but during the roundtable, Smith did indeed talk about conflicts with Willis on the set.

He made it sound like Willis usually gets his way, but Smith wasn't gonna let that happen, so they had to find a compromise. It didn't sound like there was any bad blood between them, but it did sound like they had problems. I also don't know if I buy Smith's reasoning that the trailer is unfunny because it's supposed to appeal to people other than Kevin Smith fans, but I guess we'll know when the movie's released.

Willis wouldn't listen to Smith on set. At all. So I don't know how much of a compromise that is.

oh my god. seriously?

"the trailer wasn't supposed to be funny."

why would anyone cutting a trailer have that as a goal?

"you know, i could cut a funny trailer for this comedy, but i don't want to alienate anyone. So im going to make the most bland trailer ever in order to appeal to everyone."

now that i think about it, it worked for Wild Hogs.

I saw the a TV advert during one of the NFL playoff games. Warner Bros. promotes "Cop Out" as "From the studio that brought you 'Lethal Weapon'."

Yes, the morons in Hollywood are so desperate for money, everything has to be promoted by referencing other movies.

If Hollywood is gonna be name-checking for every movie, why not promote every WB release with "From a corporate cousin of CNN"?

i liked kevin smith. after jay and silent bob, jersey girl, and clerks 2, i liked him a lot less. i just kind of felt like his films never matured.

then he made Zack and Miri and started putting out quotes comparing his work to Judd Apatow's and he thought that with Seth Rogen he would finally break out with a more mainstream hit.

then he didn't. then he got kind of depressed/beligerent.

there's nothing worse than having to hear people in the business complain about how their films are received. and i get it. smith is a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, but nothing makes a guy less likable then making statements that equate to "people just don't get it."

i remember when Gilliam was pushing Tideland and he was just cringeworthy with his bare and broken statements about how the industry had battered him into submission.

No one wants to hear filmmakers bitch.

The red-band trailer, as is often the case, provides a much more illuminating take on the actual nature of the movie, to the point that I was actually surprised to see it *wasn't* written by Smith and he was only in the director's chair.

Given that though, past Kevin Smith films have been all about his dialogue and characters. He has repeatedly self-mocked the quality of his direction. I would have thought I'd see a Kevin Smith script directed by someone else before I saw Kevin Smith direct someone else's script.

Zack and Miri was a good movie. I enjoyed it and I think he did a fairly good job of getting out of the way. it probably should have been sold more as a romantic comedy, get the chicks in the door. They probably should have changed the title if it meant more commercials,etc. I think Clerks 2 is horribly unfunny and I was a Smith devotee. I think he should have been brave enough to leave Jay and Bob on the shelf after Jay and Silent Bob Strikes back. We didn't need anymore. This new movie looks very bad based on the trailer. None of the ads for Cop Out makes reference to Smith, which is likely a bad idea because Willis hasn't had a non Die Hard hit in a long time. This movie's failure will be blamed on Smith but it could be blamed on Willis just as easily.

You know, I think sometimes the studio's get in their own way sometimes when it come to marketing and this is a prime example - this is a buddy cop comedy.

Is there anything about the Kevin Smith "brand" that would really drive away that potential audience? Seriously, when you think of Kevin Smith movies, what do you think of? Crude, snarky, funny - how would that detract from a film of this genre? I mean, have you seen Tango and Cash????

Sloanish: Smith didn't make it sound like that during the roundtable. Of course, it's not like he would if it were true, but I am curious as to where you've got your info from.

I think the silliest thing about advertising a movie as "From the studio that brought you 'Lethal Weapon'," is that it is most definitely not the same studio now as it was when Lethal Weapon came out.

That trailer was horrible. Tracy Morgan is as funny as a savage beating to the face.

I'm not a huge fan of Kevin Smith's writing, which is sooo writerly and cutesy I get kind of annoyed with it. But then, why hire this guy with zero visual skills and isn't that great with actors to direct a movie he didn't write, when you could get Tim Story or Shawn Levy or shit, the grandfather of them all Brett Ratner?

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