JamesG
08-10-2012, 11:55 AM
Art Imitates Life: 10 Movies Altered Due to Real-Life Events
Gangster Squad (2012)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/Gangster-Squad-Poster-towatchpile-1.jpg
Mere hours after the movie-theater massacre that took place in the early morning hours at a July 20th Aurora, Colo., showing of The Dark Knight Rises, the scramble to pull the trailer for the upcoming Gangster Squad had already begun.
The trailer, for a film about the 1940s-era Los Angeles underworld, featured a shoot-’em-up scene that takes place in a movie theater. At a time when the sanctity of the cinema had been attacked in an all-too-real fashion, the uncanny echo of that event seemed frightening and insensitive.
After deciding to stop showing the preview—that was to run before some screenings of The Dark Knight Rises—Warner Bros. also decided to re-do the movie itself in order to delete that scene.
In order to accommodate the additional shooting and editing, the movie has been pushed from a Sept. 7, 2012, opening to a Jan. 11, 2013, slot.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/james_holmes_arraignment_0.jpg
The Watch (2012)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/the-watch-poster-1.jpg
This February, when neighborhood-watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, the concept of a do-it-yourself suburban patrol took on a new level of sinister meaning. As people across the country struggled to process the aftermath of the shooting, the national attention it drew and the behavior of Zimmerman, attention fell on Neighborhood Watch.
The film is a raunchy comedy about a suburban alien invasion, but the title—and a trailer that featured young people in trouble and Jonah Hill making gun motions—was too close for comfort.
The movie, which comes out on July 27, was renamed The Watch. An early promotional poster, which featured a gunshot-ridden sign, was also replaced with a one of the star comedians’ friendly faces.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/trayvonZimmermanMugShot.jpg
Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/dr-strangelove-51j5rngx7yl_ss500_-1.jpg
On Nov. 22, 1963, Stanley Kubrick was supposed to present his new film, Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, to the press. Shortly before the screening, word arrived that President Kennedy had been assassinated that day.
The screening was canceled and, because the film treats a U.S. President character with less than the utmost respect, changes were made before the film’s release.
The character of Major Kong had a line describing how “a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas”—but because the President had been killed in Dallas, the line was changed to “in Vegas.”
A pie-throwing sequence that Kubrick found too silly was also cut; it would have included the line “our beloved President has been struck down in his prime.”
The film’s planned London premiere, scheduled for Dec. 12 that year, was also cancelled. Dr. Strangelove eventually opened in the U.S. on Jan. 29, 1964.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/uewb_06_img0397.jpg
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/51p8ixJMbqL-1.jpg
The Oct. 2007 movie Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck’s first film in the director’s chair, is a Boston-set tale of an abduction investigation: Casey Affleck plays the detective on the trail of a missing four-year-old named Amanda McCreadie.
The film was completed prior to spring of that year—and based on a Dennis Lehane novel nearly a decade old at that point—but its premise bore an eerie similarity to the real-life case of Madeleine McCann. The British three-year-old McCann was last seen by her parents during a vacation to Portugal that May and has yet to be found.
Although Gone Baby Gone is a U.S.-specific underworld story, far from the life of the McCann family, the actress who played Amanda was also named Madeleine and was, like McCann, blonde.
Out of sensitivity to the case, Gone Baby Gone’s U.K. release was pushed from Dec. 2007 to June 2008.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/article-0-01CEC7D300000578-813_233x331.jpg
Phone Booth (2002)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/all_dvd_covers_phone_booth_front-other-1.jpg
The plot of the movie Phone Booth seems like something that could never happen in real life: after entering a public phone booth to pick up a ringing phone, a man is told that he is in a sniper’s sights and will be killed if he leaves the booth.
But, in October of 2002, the threat of an unknown sniper became very real. Ten people died and three more were injured during a spate of unprovoked shootings in the Washington, D.C., area, before John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were apprehended in connection to the crimes.
Although Phone Booth had been scheduled to open on Nov. 15, 2002, it was deemed frighteningly realistic and pushed back to an April 3, 2003 opening.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/sniper_court-1.jpg
Gangster Squad (2012)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/Gangster-Squad-Poster-towatchpile-1.jpg
Mere hours after the movie-theater massacre that took place in the early morning hours at a July 20th Aurora, Colo., showing of The Dark Knight Rises, the scramble to pull the trailer for the upcoming Gangster Squad had already begun.
The trailer, for a film about the 1940s-era Los Angeles underworld, featured a shoot-’em-up scene that takes place in a movie theater. At a time when the sanctity of the cinema had been attacked in an all-too-real fashion, the uncanny echo of that event seemed frightening and insensitive.
After deciding to stop showing the preview—that was to run before some screenings of The Dark Knight Rises—Warner Bros. also decided to re-do the movie itself in order to delete that scene.
In order to accommodate the additional shooting and editing, the movie has been pushed from a Sept. 7, 2012, opening to a Jan. 11, 2013, slot.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/james_holmes_arraignment_0.jpg
The Watch (2012)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/the-watch-poster-1.jpg
This February, when neighborhood-watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, the concept of a do-it-yourself suburban patrol took on a new level of sinister meaning. As people across the country struggled to process the aftermath of the shooting, the national attention it drew and the behavior of Zimmerman, attention fell on Neighborhood Watch.
The film is a raunchy comedy about a suburban alien invasion, but the title—and a trailer that featured young people in trouble and Jonah Hill making gun motions—was too close for comfort.
The movie, which comes out on July 27, was renamed The Watch. An early promotional poster, which featured a gunshot-ridden sign, was also replaced with a one of the star comedians’ friendly faces.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/trayvonZimmermanMugShot.jpg
Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/dr-strangelove-51j5rngx7yl_ss500_-1.jpg
On Nov. 22, 1963, Stanley Kubrick was supposed to present his new film, Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, to the press. Shortly before the screening, word arrived that President Kennedy had been assassinated that day.
The screening was canceled and, because the film treats a U.S. President character with less than the utmost respect, changes were made before the film’s release.
The character of Major Kong had a line describing how “a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas”—but because the President had been killed in Dallas, the line was changed to “in Vegas.”
A pie-throwing sequence that Kubrick found too silly was also cut; it would have included the line “our beloved President has been struck down in his prime.”
The film’s planned London premiere, scheduled for Dec. 12 that year, was also cancelled. Dr. Strangelove eventually opened in the U.S. on Jan. 29, 1964.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/uewb_06_img0397.jpg
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/51p8ixJMbqL-1.jpg
The Oct. 2007 movie Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck’s first film in the director’s chair, is a Boston-set tale of an abduction investigation: Casey Affleck plays the detective on the trail of a missing four-year-old named Amanda McCreadie.
The film was completed prior to spring of that year—and based on a Dennis Lehane novel nearly a decade old at that point—but its premise bore an eerie similarity to the real-life case of Madeleine McCann. The British three-year-old McCann was last seen by her parents during a vacation to Portugal that May and has yet to be found.
Although Gone Baby Gone is a U.S.-specific underworld story, far from the life of the McCann family, the actress who played Amanda was also named Madeleine and was, like McCann, blonde.
Out of sensitivity to the case, Gone Baby Gone’s U.K. release was pushed from Dec. 2007 to June 2008.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/article-0-01CEC7D300000578-813_233x331.jpg
Phone Booth (2002)
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/all_dvd_covers_phone_booth_front-other-1.jpg
The plot of the movie Phone Booth seems like something that could never happen in real life: after entering a public phone booth to pick up a ringing phone, a man is told that he is in a sniper’s sights and will be killed if he leaves the booth.
But, in October of 2002, the threat of an unknown sniper became very real. Ten people died and three more were injured during a spate of unprovoked shootings in the Washington, D.C., area, before John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were apprehended in connection to the crimes.
Although Phone Booth had been scheduled to open on Nov. 15, 2002, it was deemed frighteningly realistic and pushed back to an April 3, 2003 opening.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/sniper_court-1.jpg