GANGSTER SQUAD – Shootout Scene Rethought After Aurora Tragedy

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Release date may have to be pushed back for refilming of key sequence.

After the massacre at the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, this past weekend, producers of the upcoming film Gangster Squad are rethinking a scene in the film in which a shootout begins in Grauman’s Chinese Theater.  The sequence, in which mobsters burst through the screen and then proceed to Tommy-gun their way up the aisles was thought to be one of the key action sequences in the film.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Will Beal, the film’s screenwriter, has already been brought in to help devise new scenarios, including those that might have the scene beginning in another setting.  That the sequence immediately isn’t being scrapped altogether may be an indication of the scope and importance of its place in the film.

The dilemma brings about memories of the ripple effect that the attacks of September 11th, 2001, had upon the movie industry.  After that tragedy, several films had to undergo extensive reshooting.  Of note is a trailer for the first film in the Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series, in which the webslinger snares some bad guys in a web stretched between the Twin Towers. The Schwarzenegger vehicle Collateral Damage was also pushed back four months when a scene in which a building was bombed had to be reconceptualized.

I’m not usually one to jump behind politically correct reactions to tragedies, particularly as it relates to the arts, but from the descriptions I’m reading of the sequence in question, it sounds like the studio is doing precisely the right thing.  If the film’s producer’s are able to keep the remainder of the sequence by moving the beginning of the shootout to a different venue, I think that would remain well within the bounds of good taste.  We’ll keep you updated with any new information on the production as it becomes available.