Brad Pitt’s upcoming film Cogan’s Trade gets a new title: Killing Them Softly

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Ugh. According to Variety’s Jeff Sneider, The Weinstein Company has retitled COGAN’S TRADE – director Andrew Dominik’s upcoming Brad Pitt-as-a-mob-enforcer flick – to KILLING THEM SOFTLY. Again: Ugh.

Dominik, the director behind CHOPPER and the incredible THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, has lined up a stellar cast for NOT COGAN’S TRADE: Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Bella Heathcote, Sam Shepard, and Garret Dillahunt. The film itself is an adaptation of the book by George V. Higgins called Cogan’s Trade. I guess the Weinsteins felt that a more generic title was in order!

Here’s the synopsis of the book:

Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is an enforcer, and when the mob’s rules get broken, Cogan is called in to take care of business. This time a high-stakes card game has been held up by an unknown gang of thugs. Calculating, ruthless, businesslike, and with a shrewd sense of other people’s weaknesses, Cogan plies his trade, moving among a variety of hoods, hangers-on, and big-timers, tracking those responsible, and returning “law and order” to the lawless Boston underworld.

KILLING THEM SOFTLY opens September 21st.