The American Way
The new trailer for Hollywoodland is online, and it looks promising. It's interesting, though, that the film's title has been altered from the working title of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Maybe the old title was deemed to clunky, or maybe Focus and Miramax got all worried that the title might place a little too much emphasis on George Reeves, TV's Superman, and not the investigation of his controversial suicide, which seems to be what really drives the plot of the film. Ben Affleck is playing Reeves, yet most of the ads and merchandising are playing up Adrien Brody and Diane Lane over Affleck. This is what makes the following quote from the trailer so great:
"What's true or false doesn't really matter. If it hurts the studio — if it stops one person from buying a ticket — I have to fix it."
Were the title change and subsequent choices to downplay Affleck's role made because, well, he's Affleck? I have no idea. It's a good story, though, and feels like it might be right. And when the legend becomes fact, you print whatever you want, or something.
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