Director Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky is slated for release Friday, August 18, and it’s already receiving rave reviews with a 92 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of Monday afternoon. Starring Channing Tatum and Adam Driver as brothers ripping off NASCAR, the feature boasts a star-studded cast and will undoubtedly draw fans of Soderbergh’s Oceans franchise.
But there’s another name attached to Lucky that has entertainment reporters asking questions: screenwriter Rebecca Blunt, who has no previous film credits and whose script is highly praised in early reviews. The Hollywood Reporter went so far as to publish an article July 27 claiming that Blunt “likely doesn’t exist,” listing possible explanations for who actually penned Logan Lucky using the name Rebecca Blunt as a pseudonym.
Soderbergh commented to Entertainment Weekly, “When people make a statement like that they should be very careful, especially when it’s a woman screenwriter who is having her first screenplay produced.” He also explained that Blunt is currently working on another project and will not do any press for her debut screenplay.
Speculation about who Blunt could be have been posted on the websites of most major entertainment publications, from IndieWIre to Collider. It’s an interesting conversation that makes Logan Lucky all the more compelling – is it possible that a rookie screenwriter could catch Soderbergh’s seasoned eye, or do all signs point to a fabricated identity for reasons that can only be guessed?
Most importantly, is it our job to figure it out? Entertainment sites glommed onto this “mystery” almost immediately after THR’s initial report, which does little more than cite “sources” and throw out unwarranted possibilities about who Blunt could be, from Soderbergh’s wife to the director himself. Whether Blunt is a pseudonym or not, she is credited as a female screenwriter in an industry that seems to finally be catching up to gender equality – I’m not sure we should question that, nor should we speculate about whether a female pseudonym is “most likely” a cover-up for a male scribe.
Gender clearly plays a role in the supposed “controversy” surrounding the Logan Lucky script. Twitter user @filmvsbook questioned August 8 whether she could include the feature in her #52FilmsByWomen pledge, “If I’m not entirely sure if the female writer is actually a woman?” Blunt responded…well, bluntly: “I’M A WOMAN,” to which @filmvsbook replied, “Good enough for me.” Good enough for us, too.
© Georgiana E. Presecky (8/14/17) FF2 Media
Photo: Channing Tatum and Adam Driver in Logan Lucky
Photo Credit: Claudette Barius – © Fingerprint Releasing, All Rights Reserved
