Early on in Ridley Scott's dark new thriller "The Counselor," a clueless lawyer gets a cryptic warning from a criminal who is cutting him in on a big drug deal: "The smallest crumb can devour us."

Hard-core Cormac McCarthy fans may recognize the phrase as a line from his Western novel, "Blood Meridian." There will likely be a few such fans in the audience when "The Counselor" hits theaters on Oct. 25. The movie, starring Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Penélope Cruz and Michael Fassbender, comes from an original screenplay...