Paul Feig’s new movie Jackpot! was originally called Grand Theft Lotto – but it changed late in the day. Here, he explains why.
Out now on Amazon’s Prime Video service is director Paul Feig’s return to R-rated comedy movies, Jackpot!
Starring Awkwafina and John Cena, the movie leapfrogged the now-shot A Simple Favor 2 in Feig’s queue, given how close to ready Rob Yescombe’s script and the rest of the production was.
Still, when it was first announced that Paul Feig was to direct the film, it was going under a different name: it was initially reported that the movie was called Grand Theft Lotto. In fact, the film went into production under that title, and it was only as it headed towards release did it become apparent that an alteration had been made. Now it was Jackpot!, with an exclamation mark.
Paul Feig is the guest on a new episode of the Film Stories podcast, and I asked him outright if there were any legal issues with the original title. “Of course there were!”, he laughed.
He explained that “when it was sent to me, I was told that the title had been cleared. Oh great! And we got way down the road, we were in post, and suddenly I’m getting calls from the legal department”.
The problem? The company behind the Grand Theft Auto videogames was apparently not particularly happy, and had suggested that a name change was a good idea. “First of all, I don’t know how you copyright a legal term. Grand Theft Auto is a term that the police use … and a Ron Howard movie.”
A fresh plan was called for, although it did get under Paul Feig’s skin a little. “I was angry about it, but I thought let’s change it to Grand Death Lotto, that’s even more fun.”
Again, the problem? That met some, er, ‘legal resistance’ as well. “It sounds too close! But two of the words aren’t the same words”, Feig noted.
He added that he likes the film eventual title, Jackpot! But his condition of going with that? He wanted the exclamation mark at the end, and duly got it. The makers of the Grand Theft Auto games seemingly had no problem with that…
Here’s our podcast episode, where Paul Feig tells the tale in full…
Jackpot! – definitely not called Grand Theft Lotto – is now available to stream on Prime Video.
