Penn's "Wild" copy

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I wonder what the story is behind a deliberately perverse decision by Paramount Vantage marketers to describe Sean Penn's credits on Into The Wild (9.21) in a blatantly non-grammatical way? The one-sheet says "screenplay and directed by Sean Penn." Obviously it should either say "screenplay and direction by Sean Penn" or "written and directed by Sean Penn."

Penn's credit copy on Into The Wild one-sheet

Did Penn go ballistic and say, "I don't care about grammatical....this is how I want it"? Because he knew it would get attention in the way "The Birds is coming" got attention? Strange. Lame. Here's the exclusive trailer on My Space.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 25, 2007 at 5:20 PM

comment #1

Stephe96 says ...

Is Penn really in a position to demand anything after "All The King's Men" tanked so badly? If he was smart he'd remove any mention of his name on the poster. Then the poor flick might have a chance...

Posted by Stephe96 at June 25, 2007 5:50 PM

comment #2

Nate West says ...

"In the wild," grammar is the first casualty.

Posted by Nate West at June 25, 2007 5:51 PM

comment #3

BurmaShave says ...

I love that fragment of the poster, because I can pretend that it's some kind of LOST IN TRANSLATION thing set in Alaska starring Kristen Stewart and Hal Holbrook.

Posted by BurmaShave at June 25, 2007 6:07 PM

comment #4

tholl-yung says ...

"Screenplay by and directed by" got shortened. It should "Screenplay, and directed, by"

Posted by tholl-yung at June 25, 2007 6:11 PM

comment #5

tholl-yung says ...

They should have gone all the way in a bold new way: "Screenplayed and Directed By"

Posted by tholl-yung at June 25, 2007 6:22 PM

comment #6

Rick22 says ...

It's a Writer's Guild thing... he can't claim the "Written by" credit because it's based on source material. Some people get around this, ala Tarantino with "Jackie Brown," with the credit, "Written for the Screen and Directed by..."

But yeah, this poster reads like shite. Should either have two credits -- the "Screenplay by Sean Penn" and the "Directed by Sean Penn" credit or the forementioned Tarantino one... which for all I know is not "legal" per the Writer's Guild... not sure on that one.

Posted by Rick22 at June 25, 2007 6:23 PM

comment #7

Arran says ...

Fuck grammar...Hal Holbrook's in this! Yay!

Posted by Arran at June 25, 2007 6:30 PM

comment #8

le corbeau says ...

Screenwrote and directored by, that's what I plan on demanding.

Posted by le corbeau at June 25, 2007 7:04 PM

comment #9

alynch says ...

Screenified and directorialized by....

Posted by alynch at June 25, 2007 7:12 PM

comment #10

BurmaShave says ...

This is completely off topic, but when you guys were kids, did any of you confuse Hal Holbrook with the Mayor in JAWS (Mr. Robinson in THE GRADUATE)? His name escapes me, and I'm too lazy to IMDb.

Posted by BurmaShave at June 25, 2007 7:36 PM

comment #11

lazarus says ...

Burma, you mean Murray Hamilton?

Yes, you're not alone.

Posted by lazarus at June 25, 2007 7:43 PM

comment #12

berg says ...

I always confused Holbrook with Samuel Clemens

Posted by berg at June 25, 2007 7:44 PM

comment #13

Josh Massey says ...

I always confused Samuel Clemens with Mark Twain.

Posted by Josh Massey at June 25, 2007 7:46 PM

comment #14

MickTravis says ...

I always confused Mark Twain with other riverboat-based units of depth.

Posted by MickTravis at June 25, 2007 8:22 PM

comment #15

berg says ...

hey josh, didn't i buy some press kits from you on eBay in 2001? b

Posted by berg at June 25, 2007 8:22 PM

comment #16

erniesouchak says ...

They could have gotten around this by using the old standby "A Film by Sean Penn."

When did marketing people become illiterate? First "40-Yr-Old Virgin" had no hyphens...now this!

Posted by erniesouchak at June 25, 2007 8:55 PM

comment #17

Geoff says ...

It really is horrible. "Screenplay and Direction by" is what they must have been going for. It's really funny to think of Sean Penn approving this though.

Posted by Geoff at June 25, 2007 9:11 PM

comment #18

quitstaringatme says ...

Does it matter what Penn credits himself as, does anyone still care?

He just seems like such a joke to me. I kind of hope he just retires from acting. Again.

Posted by quitstaringatme at June 25, 2007 9:37 PM

comment #19

Daviddb says ...

Is it just me or does the trailer look like a Disney version of "Grizzly Man"...supposedly one would garner from the trailer that this kid was spiritually awakened by going to the wilds, but all he ended up doing was starving to death after a short period.

Posted by Daviddb at June 25, 2007 9:57 PM

comment #20

scooterzz says ...

how about 'penned by sean'?....it sounds so sporty....(i'm gonna regret this, i bet)....

Posted by scooterzz at June 25, 2007 10:06 PM

comment #21

Geoff says ...

Yeah I'm not that impressed by the trailer, given the actual conent of the book. They could be marketing it that way purposefully, I mean, this is the same director who made The Pledge and that had one depressing ending.

Posted by Geoff at June 25, 2007 10:40 PM

comment #22

colby says ...

I would be much more worried about this if I didn't have such admiration for the source material.

Posted by colby at June 25, 2007 10:44 PM

comment #23

aperson says ...

sorry, wells, you're wrong. there's nothing incorrect about that usage. it's awkward, maybe, but it's grammatically sound.

Posted by aperson at June 26, 2007 4:32 AM

comment #24

Rod32303 says ...

Who gives a fuck? Either see it or not. The WGA explanation sounds plausible. And Zallian and his editors are responsible for the unfortunate mess that "All the King's Men" ended up - Penn is still amazing.

Posted by Rod32303 at June 26, 2007 6:15 AM

comment #25

soundoftheground says ...

so why is hal holbrook not credited on imdb for this film - neither on the film's page or his own...

Posted by soundoftheground at June 26, 2007 6:15 AM

comment #26

Ogami Itto says ...

"so why is hal holbrook not credited on imdb for this film - neither on the film's page or his own... "

They're probably just exploiting his name -- hoping no one notices his complete absence from the film -- to capitalize on his HUGE box-office drawing power. Never underestimate the power of the Holbrook Factor.

Posted by Ogami Itto at June 26, 2007 7:18 AM

comment #27

George Prager says ...

"Is Penn really in a position to demand anything after "All The King's Men" tanked so badly?"

Apples and oranges. Actually more like apples and dick cheney.

Posted by George Prager at June 26, 2007 7:46 AM

comment #28

tholl-yung says ...

i like Berg's video

Posted by tholl-yung at June 26, 2007 7:57 AM

comment #29

christian says ...

well, they probably don't want to confuse the "is it hal halbrook or murray hamilton" fanbase...

Posted by christian at June 26, 2007 8:58 AM

comment #30

BurmaShave says ...

Indeed. We are legion.

Posted by BurmaShave at June 26, 2007 9:26 AM

comment #31

Craig Kennedy says ...

Who is this 'Hal Holbrook' character? I always thought that Deep Throat in All The President's Men was Murray Hamilton...

Posted by Craig Kennedy at June 26, 2007 9:40 AM

comment #32

insidah says ...

It's been a while since I read this book, but didn't the guy have depression issues? Wasn't he basically disappearing into the woods to disappear from life? I'm not getting that vibe from the promotional stuff.

Posted by insidah at June 26, 2007 12:03 PM

comment #33

Buzz Fledderjohn says ...

They probably just don't wanna sell it as something quite that depressing. It's Penn, I trust him. Crossing Guard is a great movie.

Posted by Buzz Fledderjohn at June 26, 2007 12:20 PM

comment #34

Joshua Mooney says ...

You can sell press kits on Ebay? Christ. There's a million dollars I dumped into recycling.

[hey josh, didn't i buy some press kits from you on eBay in 2001? b

Posted by: berg at June 25, 2007 08:22 PM]

Posted by Joshua Mooney at June 26, 2007 1:22 PM

comment #35

Joshua Mooney says ...

I believe, "aperson," that Strunk and White would insist on this: "Screenplay, and directed, by Sean Penn."

[sorry, wells, you're wrong. there's nothing incorrect about that usage. it's awkward, maybe, but it's grammatically sound.

Posted by: aperson at June 26, 2007 04:32 AM]

Posted by Joshua Mooney at June 26, 2007 1:28 PM

comment #36

malibugigolo says ...

penned and panning by Penn

Posted by malibugigolo at June 26, 2007 7:42 PM

comment #37

christian says ...

according to the imdb, hal halbrook plays murray hamilton playing "deep throat" in ATPM. hal halbrook did stand in for hamilton in some scenees in THE HUSTLER and 1941, but halbrook refused to do JAWS because he was playing mark twain as murray hamilton...

Posted by christian at June 27, 2007 8:51 AM

comment #38

adorian says ...

Nu Skool = nothing is grammatically wrong if people can understand it.

Old School = It's grammatically wrong. It is called faulty parallel structure and cannot stand as such. It must be corrected so that it displays proper parallelism.

It just depends on whether you are Nu or Old.

Posted by adorian at June 27, 2007 9:21 AM

comment #39