15 years ago the collision of Bruce Willis with Kevin Smith led to a large box office

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“I know a real story. One guy didn’t even sit for af ** a relative.” These are the words directed by Kevin SmithTalking to Mark Moron in January 2011 in the episode of his podcast “WTF”. Smith came out of his 2010 studio comedy “Cop Out”, which starred “Die Hard” Legend Bruce Willis and “SNL” Tris Morgan’s graduate as a couple of odd police officers. What to say, Smith was difficult to make a movie. It should also be said that Smith was not confused with the Morgan. “If it wasn’t for Treis, I could kill myself or anyone else in making this movie,” Smith added.

Smith who The world was known to the world of its favorite 1994, which came to indie “clerk” He came out of the box office of disappointment that was “Zak and Mir to make porn”. It seemed that his main hit of the breakthrough of Jaudda Apatava turned out to be a little misfire. For subsequent observation, the director went to the full studio, united with Warner Bros. For bilateral comedy with one of the most favorite movie stars of all time and peoples. This would be another commercial fool, which left a long impression on Smith and changed his career.

In the fairy tales this week we look out of the “Cop Out” in honor of our 15th anniversary. We will review how it was, why the title was supposed to change, what went behind the scenes with Willis, what happened when he got into the theater that happened in the years after the release, and what we can learn from it all these years later. Let’s dig, don’t you?

The film focuses on the veteran Jimi Monroe (Willis) vetelate that needs the money to pay for the future daughter’s wedding. He decides to sell his revered PAFKO baseball card, but stole it before he can raise money. As a result, Jimmy and his partner Paul (Morgan) should resist the gangster who is obsessed with sports memorable items to find this revered possession.

Author of Rob and Mark Kallen, The movie started life as a script called “Couple Diki” This is blacklisted, which is an unofficial list of the best unproductive scenarios in Hollywood. The script made your way to Warner Bros. And, in the end, in the hands of Smith. This would be the first time Smith if he was making a movie he didn’t write. It would also be the last.

“The whole movie is like cops that are practically married but not really, and I have Vulture In 2009. Smith actually cut the salary to send “Cop Out” Partly because he wanted to keep it R, but also because he was so excited about working with Willis. “For those who say,” He just broke up, he’s just going to the dollar ” – I make less to make this movie than I am on” Dogma “, which is a movie I made 10 years ago and hasn’t made a lot of money,” Smith said in March 2009.

Willis had not made an open comedy for a long time, while it was firmly in Smith’s wheel. But the $ 30 million budget was much higher than Smith used to work. However he used to work with Willis, Because the director played a small role in “Live Free or Die Hard”. They had a relationship. What can go wrong?

In his book “Hard W*t”, Smith called Willis as the “most stupid” man he met. The whole section is dedicated to Smith’s time to make a movie, and it is not raised. “If I wrote a true story in the book, it would be worse,” Smith said later in San Diega panel Comic -con In 2012. Weekly, Willis was not a man who hoped he would be. According to Smith, he was not cooperating, late and complicated. In the same interview on “WTF” Smith made it clear how he feels.

“It was difficult. I never participated in a situation where one component was not in the box at all. It was f ** Kin Soul Drushing. I mean a lot of people would look like:” Oh, you just try to blame the movie. “No, but I didn’t have the help of the king from that dude.”

But some tried to move the guilt to Smith. “He smoking too much pot. He was sitting behind his monitor. He did not interact with the actors. The actors thought they themselves,” said a talent representative who worked on Smith’s staging Hollywood reporter In 2011, Smith was reflected against this characteristic. The fact is that the whole case was ugly, and the vibration on the set was clearly bad. Wilis’ camp even released a statement Trying to reassure the rumors that they were not used on the set.

“Bruce Willis and Kevin Smith absolutely no.

Smith has almost unreasonable hours that discuss the situation with Bruce Willis/”police”, making it a really difficult distillation. The important thing is that the script with the promise was spoiled by a dysfunctional set. Despite all the accounts, a great scenario and a great acting composition, which also included similar Shan William Scott (“American Pie”), Rashid Jones (“Parks and Recreation”) and Michelle Trachtenberg (“gossip”) that has recently diedThe final result has not reached expectations.

Warner Bros. did his best to sell a movie that is part of why the title was changed. Unfortunately, the final result was a film that lagged behind, which made things extremely difficult, especially since the budget has approached $ 40 million. Marketing was reasonable. The given trailer leaves that Warner Bros. For many years, I have shot some classic police films. It’s a fun hook, but it just went so far.

On February 26, 2010, “Cop Out” was in the theater, taking a respectable $ 18.2 million. Smith’s comedy had to agree to the second place as Martin Scarsez’s “throw” was in the middle of his big runHe heads graphs of $ 22.6 million. Unfortunately, the insufficient reviews and competition from Tim Burton “Alice in the Wonderland”, among others, meant that the film fell dramatically in the coming weeks, falling out of the top ten completely until mid -March.

The Smith’s Buddy comedy ended at $ 44.8 million in the country to go with a weak $ 10.7 million abroad totaling $ 55.6 million worldwide. With the smaller budget and the best reviews, who knows what can happen? Because it exists, the movie was a significant flop. However, a little ironic, it is still The highest feature of the career of Smith.

“He changed everything for me. Because now I never met anyone. It was. I would like people from afar,” Smith said about Willis in an interview with “WTF”. The experience left him a trail, and Smith also aimed at film critics in the coming years. “So many critics lined up to pull the sad and awkward train on the” police officer “, as it was Jennifer Jason Lee in” Last Exit to Brooklyn “, watching how they won him (that) was sad,” -Mun, ” Smith said in the sad Twitter in 2010.

Smith then Returned to his indie karav with the action/flic horror “red state”, In addition to the resonation in subcasting. Since then, he has not made another studio film and, for some time, even threatened to leave the world that manages. Smith’s melody changed after his heart attack seven years ago An event that even influenced “clerk 3.” However, for the most part, he was not very pleased to say about Willis or “police”.

Time has a way to change things. In 2022, It turned out that Bruce Willis left the acting skill because of his diagnosis of aphasia. This directed strike waves through Hollywood, with love and support that comes for a favorite star of action. Smith, taking up to Youter At the time, they apologized for all he was saying about the actor for years:

“Long before any of the” police officers “, I was a big fan of Bruce Willis, so it really reads and singing and singing it.

Willis did not say much about this experience after the end -out. For him it was the following. For what it is worth, other directors have expressed some annoyance with Willis over the years, with Antoine Fuku, calling it “pain in my ass”, managing “tears of the sun.” So it’s not like Smith is unusual.

Regardless of whether Smith looks at the “Cop Out” since 15 years later, this is just what he can know. However, he certainly accepts it more, even spending a 15th anniversary check in his own cinemas Smodcastle from Trisi Morgan at hand. At least Smith released bitterness. This can be said about life lessons, more than one about the case of film production. In a similar note, there is something overall “Do not meet your characters”. The actors are not the ones they display on the screen.

For the directors there is a square peg, a round hole. Smith wanted to change after what happened to Castle and Miri, but interpreted the work of other people with big movie stars in the studio system, did not allow him to thrive. The fall of “Cop Out” cannot be attributed to the friction between Willis and Smith. I guess the directors should not branch outside their comfort zone? Of course, no, but there is something to say to try to do something. It rarely goes out.

As for Bruce Willis, Hollywood tends to think stars = success. Can it be true? Absolutely. But receiving Willis increased the budget and created an unhealthy working situation. Can this comedy flourish with another duo? This is definitely a question. Star force is not always the answer.