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The Pulitzer-prize winning New Orleans local newspaper thinks it’s an outrage that Lionsgate is releasing Disaster Movie on the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The studio that has hawked torture porn for years has now decided to make a buck off the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people, and on the eve of another terrible storm about to strike the Gulf states. 
“Around these Katrina-scarred parts, Aug. 29 is still — and will be for some time — a black-armband kind of day,” criticized Mike Scott, the movie writer for the local newspaper The Times-Picayune. “For Lionsgate studios, however, Aug. 29 isn’t quite as sacred. For them, the third anniversary of the day the levees were breached and New Orleans slipped under is something on the order of perfect timing: a ripped-from-the-headlines release date.” Lionsgate is quick to point out that the pic’s disaster isn’t meteorological; it’s an incoming meteor and claims the opening date is an unfortunate coincidence. “The film does not depict or parody any actual natural disaster, and the release date of ‘Disaster Movie’ is in no way a reference to or joke about the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina,” read a studio statement prepared for The Times-Picayune. As the newspaper noted, “That’s a hard line to swallow. Tasteless humor and B-movie comedies have their place. But this confluence of dates isn’t just a cheap laugh. It’s a cheap shot to an entire region still digging out from an all-too-real disaster.”
Especially when the film was shot in Shreveport, “the place that started siphoning film business from New Orleans within weeks of the storm,” Scott wrote. “Neither Friedberg nor Seltzer can credibly plead ignorance to the significance of Aug. 29 or its continued impact on this part of the country. They shot their previous spoof, Meet the Spartans, in New Orleans last year during the July and August lead-up to the second anniversary of Katrina. Surely they ventured far enough from the coziness of their hotel rooms to witness the lingering devastation of one of the worst natural disasters in American history.” Oh and irony of ironies, the film’s box office will be impacted this weekend by another bad storm. So most Gulf Coast state residents will be too busy making evacuation plans for Gustav which is heading their way now. “Lionsgate might find that funny. New Orleans isn’t laughing,” Scott concluded.
I say shame on studio bosses Jon Feltheimer and Joe Drake.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Wow, with the title I thought it was gonna be a story about buying a screenplay from a rapist or hiring some murderer as the head of development. I think this is a little over reacting. Hurricanes happen at this time of the year any day would be the anniversary of some hurricane in American history.
oh please, you are reaching for a story.
its a comedy movie…..there is no story.
what about Drama movies that come out on Christmas..should we have such sadness on Jesus’ birthday.
your trying to create a story out of a stupid spoof movie…
Really? With a movie this insipid and poorly crafted, the release date is the least offensive thing about it.
Not underplaying the severity of Katrina and the aftermath of that storm, but this movie has nothing to do with it, save for using the word “disaster” in the title. Nikki, lighten up.
Would this honestly be such a big deal if it were titled something else? Other than that and the fact that it was filmed in Shreveport (which will factor very little into the general public’s mind as they don’t care where a movie is filmed), there’s no connection to Katrina.
Late August is always the dumping ground for low-budgeted “bad movies”, especially horror films and silly, teenage-male-skewing comedies like Beerfest, Balls of Fury, and even Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. It’s purely business strategy on Lionsgate’s part to release this film before a three-day weekend; teenage boys won’t be in school on Monday and can fill up the theater. To infer that it’s meant to capitalize on Katrina is, at best, a real stretch for a story.
I’ve had programming yanked twice because disasters preempted our airing (9/11 and Columbine). Yes, it’s a drag but the inconvenience to the network is nothing compared to the real people affected by death and destruction and mayhem. I was proud both times when my network rescheduled these disaster movies; there wasn’t even a discussion about it. Both times, the head of the company simply sent an email and said, “Let’s reschedule.”
But as you point out, you’re talking about the guys who plastered broadcast and basic cable with their horrifying torture-porn trailers, and put up their brand of sickness on billboards all over the city. What kind of pervert could even stand to work as a grip on those POS movies?
um, not to be a wet blanket on the rightous outrage, but you could pick any weekend of the year and it would be the anniversary of one tragedy or another… Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Typhoons… the world’s a dangerous place.
VERY sad…
I never thought there was much soul in Hollywood to begin with — did any of us? — but come on, Lionsgate, you can think beyond money for once…or at least for one weekend.
You have GOT to be kidding me! There’s an anniversary for that? Didn’t realize 8/29 was something we’re supposed to remember, like 9/11 or 7/4.
The event will never be forgotten, but c’mon, do people really have to read their history books before releasing a movie to make sure nothing possibility related happened on that date in history?!?!
Everybody’s looking for something to get offended about.
Count me out…i’m going to McDonalds to see if I can get them to serve me some too hot coffee…
What executive in Lionsgate selected the date? The timing for this one is off and it could’ve been moved up. As someone who experince Katrina first hand,I can tell you it’s not going to play well in New Orleans. Especially when u have another storm,Gustav schelduled to be in the Gulf by Monday afternoon. The CEO should pull this film becouse there could be backlash. Honestly the release date should’ve been move up to the fall or later. Not during an anniversary of diaster that’s still fresh in everyone’s mind. Lionsgate has set itself up for some backlash publicity with this film even though it’s comedy. Hurricanes aren’t funny.
If you look in your almanac, I’m sure you can find a disaster anniversary for every day of the year. I think 9/11 would have had much more impact if that’s what they were going for.
It looks like Lionsgate’s tactic worked. Look at the publicity the film is getting.
While I do agree with you that LIONSGATE has no conscience, I don’t see this one as a big deal as it’s a spoof comedy that harmless fluff. Most likely awful harmless fluff, but harmless none the less! Personally I wouldn’t see this garbage if I was dragged to it, but I don’t see this release date as a big deal!
If the Lionsgate people are tacky enough to realize that the release date is a day that was the beginning of the worst natural disaster in U. S. history, and think that they will profit from it, then they should be shamed, and ashamed. If they get enough flack about it, perhaps they will be more “in tune” with possible implications of subject matter and release dates in the future. As it stands, wouldn’t it be too late to stop it from opening?
As far as Mr. Scott, the guy who wrote the Picaynue article, I say shame on him. Not because of his opinion about the movie, but his cheap shot at Shreveport. It is purely sour grapes-an example of an intrastate rivalry, which is silly and unfortunate. Shreveport spent millions of dollars housing people who fled Katrina for months, if not still housing some at this moment. Circumstances worked out whee the industry was looking to move, and Shreveport was a logical place. After the expense, the way their city administrators look at things, this is good way to recoup some of that expense, and if everyone flees Gustave, and some already are, guess where they will probably land?
Katrina’s effect was an eye opener for the movie business in New Orleans. Yes, hurricanes were always a possibility in NO, and will remain so. The entertainment business spends millions of dollars in production, as most of the posters here know very well, since most of you, I assume, are in that business. Well, no busines likes to take unnecessary risks when they become painfully aware of them. Many movie companies realized they could film in Shreveport because it has more stable weather conditions. With the exception of being pretty hot in the summer, it usually isn’t prone to extreme precipitation; it rarely gets snow. Also, they found that it offered many eclectic locations that could be used to depict different eras. For example, when Sienna Miller was wandering around 1960′s New York in “Factory Girl” she was actually wandering around downtown Shreverport. Also, if a company wants to go to New Orleans to do some shooting, they can drive down there to do it if they don’t want to be based there.
Obviously New Orleans would like to keep movie companies bringing in money to their city, and movie companies should still go there, but it would probably be wise not to go during hurricane season, and that can be said of many locations on the Gulf of Mexico’s vast coastline, not just New Orleans. From May until late November there is always a risk. Yes, there are earthquakes in Los Angeles, and all over California. You can’t predict an earthquake at the present time, but hurricanes can be predicted, and smart business people don’t put their operations at risk if they can avoid it, so why not play it safe and film where you can get much of what you were looking for, if not everything in terms of location, and not have to shut down your production because of dangerous weather? That’s exactly what many have done.
Both Louisiana cities could benefit if they would work together, especially since the state of Louisiana has set up incentives to encourage the movie business to film there. That is probably too much to ask for, as the power base is shifting somewhat from south Louisiana to the north. Naturally New Orleans is not happy about that, and Shreveport feels it is long overdue for many things. So, right now the film industry has found it profitable to film many things there, because it is currently profitable, and Mr. Scott can carp all he wants(free speech, of course) but as long as it works, it probably won’t change.
This date was selected in the spring, when this movie was titled “GOODIE TWO SHOES.” They planned to have it out on LABOR DAY WEEKEND. Perhaps Lionsgate could have switched up release dates with “Bangkok Dangerous” next week, but then people would complain that they were releasing “Disaster Movie” too close to another anniversary of a disaster.
Considering that they spoof movies in this that weren’t even released when they wrapped shooting, I think people will find more humor in news footage of Katrina’s devastation than they will in this movie.
Having lived in Louisiana for several years, once upon a time, I can say that the Times Pic article is typical of the NOLA mindset – there’s NOLA and then there’s the rest of Louisiana.
Bringing film/TV/etc. business to Louisiana is a STATE strategy, not a NOLA one. Just like everything else that goes on in Louisiana, NOLA always believes it deserves preferential treatment – and when over 1/4 of the state’s population lived in or around NOLA, it got it.
Now, with a decreased population (not just in NOLA proper but also the surrounding area), NOLA whines about how it isn’t treated fairly which is almost understandable since it was treated favorably at the expense of other Louisiana regions for so long.
I’ll call out Scott’s article for what it is – just another attempt to attract attention to NOLA and a pathetic one considering the film it using to do so. The Times Pic has constantly been trying to seek attention for NOLA since Katrina and that advocacy is understandable and should be expected, but I would suggest using a better film (or better anything for that matter) than this for that agenda.
Regardless, sympathy for NOLA is going to be low when they re-elect the same mayor that failed them during Katrina (in addition to the failure at other levels) and re-elect the same Congressman AFTER he is indicted and the FBI finds his freezer at his home in NOLA packed with money.
Talk about cold cash…
And what about all those Christmas movies they release during the holidays?
Talk about exploitation!
Jesus, who has quite a fan base, died and they release another Santa movie every year.
Those Hollywood bastards have no feelings!
Katrina is “Bad” but I don’t see it keeping away the mindless audience DISASTER MOVIE was made for.
I really think there should be a moratorium on these ubiquitous parody films. There are way too many of them and they just aren’t very funny.
Next, they should slow down on these animated movies with all star casts providing the voices. Way too many of those, too.
I would love to jump on the “Lionsgate is Evil” bandwagon but, really? I don’t think that there is anyone over there clever enough to have thought up the Disaster Movie = Katrina anniversary connection.
You’re giving them way too much credit, Nikki.
Oh, come on, this is ridiculous. If this isn’t another example of Hollywood types thinking the world revolves around them and living in la-la land, I don’t know what is.
So we’re supposed to believe the producers of this film planned the release date to insult New Orleans? Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds to the average person?
I agree with several others here… there are lots of reasons to wish this movie had never been made, but this isn’t one of them!
haha, i love all these lame Lionsgate plants who are posting here. The movie sucks and I hope the public boycotts your crap studio.
I’d hate to think that Lionsgate executives deliberately timed the release of this film of questionable taste to coincide with the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall but even if this was just an unfortunate coincidental bit of scheduling, this shows how out of touch Hollywood’s industry leaders are with ‘flyover land’ including places like New Orleans. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that audiences are increasingly turning their backs on Hollywood’s output and how now with the national worsening for our economy the financial chickens are coming home to roost thanks to years of Hollywood’s leaders being off in their own little universe worried about making money first, then entertainment and maybe as a random afterthought something of art or consequence to society.
I think I’ll watch Spike Lee’s film on Katrina this weekend instead. My local library has a copy on DVD I can check out and I’d been meaning to see it for a while now…I think this is an excellent time to actually make that effort.
I’m so glad that Robert Altman’s not alive to see how far into disrepute Lionsgate has fallen…almost as sad as all those people who died in the floodwaters of Katrina (and if you haven’t lived through a hurricane or a tropical storm with a body count I’m not sure you can really empathize with how the survivors feel and or see how they might take some offense at the timing of Disaster Movie’s release).
Good news: Diaster Movie finished in 7th place. Another fact the NOLA critics savaged it and ripped it apart. So you Lionsgate plants should take head that crtics and the viewing public aren’t so stupid as someone of you think they are. Maybe think twice or three on releasing film on the anniversary of Katrina.
Why not get out of your tinseltown glass houses and do a real hurricane movie. Like visit actual areas that have been hit. And talk to people who lost thier homes. Just an idea. My advice get real.
Hey Nikki. Just wanted to point you to this:
ABC is right now running a repeat of “Extreme Edition: Home Makeover” about rebuilding in New Orleans after Katrina, on the eve of Hurricane Gustav about to hit the Gulf Coast.
Might there be some rage in that?
Thanks for your passion and great perspective on events.
However, in this case, I feel that you’re over-stepping. LionsGate has every right to market the film in the best manner they see fit, assuming it does not break “common” standards of deceny.
Just because the weekend was Katrina anniversary, for many of us, we would honor the memory by seeing a doc. such as this, which from all the reviews, describe an incredibly moving film.
Your indignation here seems misplaced.
Keep up the good work bec. the arrogance and pathetic, distasteful marketing and toxic effects it has on the public is real and your voice is one of the only ones standing up to this crap.
I enjoy reading your posts documenting how closed HOllywood execs are to any innovating with the guilds around new media issues and well, those of who r indie film folks have to accept that until the dinosours die off, change is gonna be hard and the guilds will be stuck and marketing decisions will be far worse that Lion Gate’s here.