Coming out as one of the year's most anticipated movies, Gangster Squad has now embroiled itself with some troubles. The movie relentlessly becomes the second "victim" of the Colorado shooting which occurred last week, killing 12 and injured another 58. The Colorado shooting has already claimed its first "victim" - The Dark Knight Rises, as the Christopher Nolan's final chapter of his Batman saga was clearly affected by the lower-than-expected opening box office gross. Now, the Ruben Fleischer directed crime drama with an amazing casting in it has been, first of all, been delayed until 11 January 2013 from its original date in September 2012, Warner Bros announced. More details after the jump.
With Gangster Squad been delayed until January next year, it seems like the studio may or may not have abandoned the Oscar hope for this movie. Depending on how it will eventually plays out, in recent years, January is not necessary or no longer the dumping ground it used to be. But opening on the month of January where business is usually slow, is a huge gamble with the studio is now hoping for a late-surge of interest and buzz to mount for the race to Oscar 2013. It is also understood that the delay was not mainly due to the direct response resulted by the Colorado shooting but Warner Bros is seeking to remove one of the important scene in the movie.
One of the most iconic and important scene features the characters shooting through a movie screen into the audience - a scene that seems to resemble the Colorado shooting in many ways. To avoid publicity controversy and divisive opinion about that particular scene, Warner Bros decided to ultimately delays the release and reshoot the scene. The controversial scene occurs at 2:03 - 2:09 of the trailer embedded below:
Here’s the official synopsis for Gangster Squad, taken from Collider:
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and–if he has his way–every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart. “The Gangster Squad” is a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD’s efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time.