Reel Facts & Opinions: More Colorado Shooting Fallout

FACT: In a direct reaction to the Colorado movie theatre shooting, Warner Bros., whose own THE DARK KNIGHT RISES was being screened during the attack, has decided make some serious edits to its upcoming GANGSTER SQUAD film. The film, which takes place in 1949 and stars Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling, will undergo edits and reshoots to remove a key scene in which a shootout takes place in a movie theatre. Trailers for the film were also pulled from rotation the day after the shooting. The changes will move the film from its September (Oscar season) release date to early January (shit season)

OPINION: The situation is a familiar one. In the fall of 2001, Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN (2002) had its trailers removed which had shots of the World Trade Center. In 2003, just days after the Shuttle Columbia disaster, trailers for THE CORE, which included a shuttle crash scene, were pulled. Warner Bros. is certainly trying to be sensitive here, but the question of where the line must be drawn has to be asked; do studios radically change their product just because of one asshole? And GANGSTER SQUAD was also a finished film and ready to screen, so the removal of an apparent key scene just may derail the entire story. If the film will miss the September 7^th release, why not just shelve the film until enough time passes? Early March or May could work. Delayed films can, and have done well in the past. Either way, they’re letting the Bad Guys win.

FACT: Actor Christian Bale, star of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, visited victims of the shooting at the hospital this week, speaking with the moviegoers and the medical staff. Bale then attended a makeshift memorial where he left flowers.

OPINION: He is an Oscar winner and the star of the biggest movie trilogy this side of Middle-Earth. Now we can put him on the list of the Good Guys. Let those Good Guys win.

What say you?