As I stated on 04.23.24, I’m going to go ahead and pretend that Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut is still called “Pussy Island.” They should have kept that title and not renamed it “Blink Twice.”
Kravitz is now telling Entertainment Weekly that she was forced to rename her film after some women were offended by the term “pussy.”
“Interestingly enough, after researching it, women were offended by the word, and women seeing the title were saying, ‘I don’t want to see that movie,’ which is part of the reason I wanted to try and use the word, which is trying to reclaim the word, and not make it something that we’re so uncomfortable using,” Kravitz said. “But we’re not there yet. And I think that’s something I have the responsibility as a filmmaker to listen to. I care about people seeing the film, and I care about how it makes people feel.”
“It was made very clear to me that ‘pussy’ is a word that we, our society, are not ready to embrace yet,” Kravitz said. “There were a lot of roadblocks along the way, whether it be the MPAA not wanting to put it on a poster, or a billboard, or a kiosk; movie theaters not wanting to put it on a ticket.”
Kravitz goes on to add that she “loves the new title.” I don’t believe her. Last August Kravitz stood by the film’s original title, even as she encountered pushback by the studio to change it. She told The Wall Street Journal that “the title came from that world. The title is the “seed of the story.” And yet, a few months later, she got rid of it.
The upcoming thriller follows a cocktail waitress who falls hard for a tech mogul and travels with him to his private island, where things turn very weird. Our resident test-screener saw “Pussy Island” late last year. Here’s what they had to say:
I attended a test screening of Zoe Kravitz’ new thriller “Pussy Island” and I was absolutely floored. It’s a total white knuckle thrill ride, especially the final 30 minutes; such nail biting tension, it’s incredibly directed to a T and it pushes all kinds of boundaries with its provocative take on the “battle of the sexes”. Channing Tatum has never been this good (or genuinely menacing, seriously got a gasp from me towards the end when he delivers a monologue) and the rest of the cast shine just as much, this has to also be Naomi Ackie’s best work to date undoubtedly, she maintains such an air of believability throughout and really delivers the humor/horror/fight back attitude that her character goes through. There were moments where I was getting major Green Room vibes with the ratcheting of the suspense and onslaught of the violence.
Kravitz co-wrote “Pussy Island” with E.T. Feigenbaum and was inspired to tell the story via the “powerful men” who invited women to remote islands for sexcapades. Um, Jeffrey Epstein? That name is going to be inescapable by the time this film gets released.
The upcoming thriller has Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum in the lead roles. The cast also includes Simon Rex, Christian Slater, Alia Shawkat, Geena Davis, Adria Arjona, and … Haley Joel Osment? Kyle MacLachlan is said to be featured in a cameo role.
Steven Soderbergh is a fan of Kravitz branching into the directing field. He says that, “of the people that I could name who I think have a real shot at coming out of the gate making something really distinctive and strong, she’s at the top of that list.”
The trailer has already been released for “Pussy Island,” which MGM/Amazon have given an August 23 rollout in theaters.