Warner Bros has moved Gangster Squad release date from from September 7 to January 11. This change will allow the production team to remove a shootout scene that takes place in a movie theater. After the shooting which happened at the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, many people probably don’t want to relive that tragedy, even in a fictional light.
The filmmakers will switch out the scene with a different murder spree part, but it will not be in a movie theater. One might say what is the difference, it’s still a murder scene? Well, it could be a few things, but the main answer is that the move creates direct distance from the horrific incident.
A few months back, Fox went through a similar situation with their upcoming comedy The Watch. The film is based on a volunteer neighborhood patrol unit, who encountering aliens while on duty. The original title for the movie was Neighborhood Watch, but after flashlight cop/neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, fatally shot Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, the studio changed the name. That case is currently one of the biggest stories in the media and the studios wanted to avoid being insensitive to such a serious situation.