‘Killing Them Softly’ Trailer: Brad Pitt Gets Rough (Video)

Brad Pitt isn’t taking any guff in the first trailer for Killing Them Softly.

The Weinstein Co. film is a reteaming of Pitt with his The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford director Andrew Dominik, and was well liked at the Cannes Film Festival.

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The trailer kicks off with a high-stakes card game, organized by Markie (Ray Liotta), being robbed by two young men (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn). Hitman Jackie Cogan (Pitt) is called in to deal with the situation — and it looks like that’s where things turn ugly.

Men are roughed up. Cars crash. Tough-guy dialogue ensues.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” Pitt’s character asks. “They cry and they plead. They call for their mothers.”  He adds: “I like to kill them softly, from a distance.”

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The film is an adaptation of George V. Higgins’ 1974 crime novel, Cogan’s Trade, which is set in Boston. The screen version has moved the story to New Orleans circa 2008, and uses then-candidate Barack Obama’s hope-filled White House bid as a counterpoint to the grim realities of the underworld.

Killing Them Softly arrives in theaters Oct. 19.