Okay, now I’m psyched. Notice how Miles Teller is apparently playing it real, or at least isn’t overtly winking or hinting that you’re watching a comedy and are therefore expected to laugh? I have a feeling it’s going to be his movie more than Jonah Hill‘s, and I’m saying this as a major Hill homie.

Posted on 3.24.16: I love the term “American biographical criminal comedy.” Todd Phillips‘ film is about the real-life saga of arms dealers Efraim_Diveroli (Jonah Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller) who ran afoul of the law five or six years ago for selling crap-level arms to the Afghan army.

Based on Guy Lawson‘s “Arms and the Dudes: How Three Stoners from Miami Beach Became the Most Unlikely Gunrunners in History“. (The third dude, Alex Podrizki, has apparently been eliminated for the sake of narrative efficiency.) War Dogs was originally slated to open on 3.11.16, but will now open on 8.19.16.

Incidentally: Back in ’78 United Artists distribution execs changed the title of Karl Reisz‘s Dog Soldiers to Who’ll Stop The Rain because the former title didn’t test well with women, or so I read. And yet today Warner Bros. distribution has no problem with War Dogs, which sounds to me like the a similar bowl of soup. The culture has changed a great deal over the last 38 years.

I’m relieved that Hill reverted to his Superbad weight to play Diveroli (according to the Wiki page); otherwise his performance might not have been believable.