What's in a movie's name? Everything

Article by: Newsday
Updated: July 31, 2012 - 6:54 PM

Some movies might not have been so popular if they had kept their original names.

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Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in "Pretty Woman."

Photo: , Touchstone Pictures

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By RAFER GUZMAN

"Neighborhood Watch" seemed like a fine title for a Jonah Hill comedy about suburbanites battling space aliens -- that is, until Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was fatally shot by a volunteer watchman in February. Suddenly, that title wasn't so funny. The movie, which arrived in theaters Friday, is now called simply "The Watch."

It's not the only movie to undergo a name change. The Chris Pine drama "People Like Us," released in June, was titled "Welcome to People" as recently as March. Even some of the most famous movie titles weren't set in stone: "Hunter" eventually became the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic "Predator," and "A Boy's Life" was the working title for Steven Spielberg's "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial."

Here are six other titles you might not recognize, though you almost certainly saw the movies they became:

"THREE THOUSAND"

The number of warriors in a fantasy epic? A future date in a sci-fi film? It's actually the price, in dollars, of a night with Vivian Ward, the character portrayed by Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman."

"THE LAST FIRST KISS"

Too mushy for male audiences, according to focus-group testing. So, this 2005 Will Smith comedy became "Hitch."

"COMFORT FOOD"

Sounds like something the late Nora Ephron might have directed, right? That's what Universal Pictures initially called this raunchy 1999 teen comedy, but the film's eventual title came from its most famous scene: "American Pie."

"THE WILLIAM MUNNY KILLINGS"

Well, it's a more palatable title than "The Cut-Whore Killings," but both seem better suited to a horror flick than a western. Eventually, the movie's director and star, Clint Eastwood, chose "Unforgiven."

"MECHANISMO"

This odd title makes some sense if you know the plot. But let's be glad the filmmakers ultimately came up with "Blade Runner," Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic about humanoid robots that starred Harrison Ford.

"TOMORROW NEVER LIES"

After this script was faxed to MGM, it's unclear who made the slip-up. But the next day a studio rep called director Roger Spottiswoode to say, "We love your title 'Tomorrow Never Dies'! That's going to be it!" And so the 18th James Bond movie found its name.