Karla from Downey here…
Warner Bros has made the decision to cut a specific scene from its yet to be released “Gangster Squad” and has plans to reshoot it before the September 7th release date, in response to the shooting at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater showing “The Dark Knight Rises.” The scene in question features gunmen blasting a crowded movie theater with machine gun fire.
Immediately after the reports of the Aurora tragedy hit the news, Warner Bros pulled the trailer from its website, IMDb.com, and at the beginning of prints of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Now Warner Bros. is rushing to reshoot this scene and still make the release date. If this is not feasible, the studio may push the film back to January of 2013.
I understand that Warner is trying to be sensitive to the victims and their families. They’ve already donated a substantial, though undisclosed amount to charities supporting those affected. They decided not to disclose box office earnings for any films this past weekend. But I really wonder how changing one scene will affect the opinions of moviegoers. We’re not blind to the tragedy nor are we immune to it. We all thought, for just a second, “What if that happened when I go see the “Dark Knight?” But when moviegoers go see “Gangster Squad” will they be thinking about the Aurora victims or will they be thinking, “I wonder how the original scene works in this. I wonder if it was better.”
Here is the storyline for “Gangster Squad”:
A chronicle of the LAPD’s fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s.
“Gangster Squad” stars Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, Giovanni Ribisi, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Anthony Mackie, Josh Pence, Nick Nolte, Mireille Enos, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, and Frank Grillo. Will Beall wrote the screenplay based on the book by Paul Lieberman. Ruben Fleischer directs.
NOTE: Will they include the deleted scene on the Extras feature of the “Gangster Squad” DVD and Blu-ray?