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EXCLUSIVE … UPDATE 9:30 AM: Warner Bros is now telling me that its outside non-studio spokeswoman failed to tell me the whole and accurate story about the process that led to the studio taking down its offensive Gangster Squad trailer this morning. A Warner Bros executive now tells me how the studio was scrambling to deal with the Aurora theater shooting crisis in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. Then, at 5 AM, one of the top distribution execs remembered that Warner Bros’ Gangster Squad trailer was playing “loose” this weekend timed to the studio’s The Dark Knight Rises release in about 30% of domestic theaters. (“Loose” means that theaters had been asked to play the trailer which was not paired with The Dark Knight Rises.)
According to Warner Bros, this distribution exec suddenly remembered that the trailer for the mob movie contained a scene showing a gangster with a machine gun shooting up people in a movie theater from behind the big screen. This distribution exec quickly instructed the studio to “replace it as soon as possible”. At 6 AM, Warner Bros started notifying the theater circuits to pull the offensive Gangster Squad trailer. That is being done all over North America today. Meanwhile, Warner Bros’ marketing department is scrambling to get out its second-generation Gangster Squad trailer already in the works. This new trailer, without the movie theater scene, will be swapped out for the offensive one within a week. Warner Bros says this is now the whole story.
And the studio’s explanation which I absolutely believe also makes clear that, while my phone calls overlapped with their behind-the-scenes process, I was not responsible for the studio pulling the offensive Gangster Squad trailer with the movie theater shooting scene.
PREVIOUS 7:30 AM: This was truly terrible decision-making by Warner Bros – both to release a trailer like this and then not to pull it immediately after today’s tragedy. I have confirmed that the studio which released The Dark Knight Rises paired offered it with the official movie trailer for Gangster Squad, an upcoming pic set in 1949 about a ruthless Mafia Godfather who runs Los Angeles. One of the scenes in the trailer that’s been playing all morning today shows a gangster with a machine gun shooting up people in a movie theater from behind the big screen. Several outraged moviegoers tipped me to this scene.
This morning I called on Warner Bros to take this trailer down immediately. The studio’s response to me? “There’s a meeting about this and then a decision will be reached.” I just received the call that the trailer is being pulled. But only after I complained. And yet movie moguls wonder why so much of the country hates Hollywood values where money trumps everything, even during the Aurora theater shooting tragedy. Here’s the horrible clip which no one at Warner Bros should have allowed to be made, much less released, in the first place:
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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So I guess Schindler’s List shouldn’t have been made then, to avoid future holocausts.
Give me a break.
Nikki did the right thing. That is incredibly bad taste. It would be like a taped program satirizing a political figure a day after the political figure unexpectedly died. Untalented Hollywood who bemoan censorship have no alternative but to resort to shock.
“So I guess Schindler’s List shouldn’t have been made then, to avoid future holocausts.”
A perfect example of distortion of reality and fallacy.
Holocausts did occur and is a reminder of our past and how horrific and unimaginable. Batman is clearly fictional. Shame on you for trying to draw a comparison between the two. I hope one day you find the meaning of love and life.
I don’t think they are pulling it to avoid bad pub, I think they are just trying to be sensitive.
Insensitivity = bad publicity, duh.
Wow what a comparison douchebag
Did Titanic 3D cause the Costa Concordia?
Give me a break x2.
You sir have a “dark knight” where your soul once resided.
That was a comic series also come to think of it
what a terrible comparison. Schindler’s List was made 50 years after the holocaust.
I agree. That trailer has been out forever… what about the scene in inglorius basterds… are they going to re-edit the entire ending of the movie?
Cannot even view the trailer of the gangster squad on youtube… it was ‘made unavailable in your country’ per the note when I tried on this site….move over China, censorship is in the USA.
Gee…I don’t know? violent movies, violent video games. The Columbine killers were dressed up like actors from the Matrix and this guy was dressed up like the Joker. Kids spend countless hours “killing” thousands of “people” in the video games. What happens in their minds with all of this? Killings like this didn’t happen in the 60′s, 70′s, 80′s. Or before that.
Sure they did. The Texas tower shooter (Starkweather?), Manson, Bundy, Zodiac, BTK, etc.
That is about the time that these mass killings STARTED TO BECOME COMMON IN THE U.S. The mid sixties.
They were pretty much UNHEARD OF PRIOR TO THE JFK ASSASSINATION.
And, funny thing:
Right about the same timeframe, more violent movies started sliding into the theatres, with TV shows following suit a few years later.
Wow. Imagine that.
Oh, you forgot about the Speck killings – 8 nurses.
And for you leftist anti-gun nuts, no gun necessary; he did it all with one knife.
check this out, here in Europe we see the same movies, play the same video games and we had one shooting similar to columbine in the past decade. is it related to the fact that we don’t have guns ? I’m sure that you’ll argue that it doesn’t have anything to do with that…
“leftist anti-gun nuts” — being anti violence makes one a “nut”?
100% in agreement ….movie after movie with nothing but killing with guns , bombs , etc. Ironic that the victims paid money to see killing and violence only to have it come to life ……
Funny how folks pretend mass killings were invented by TV…
Staying away from controversial ones – like the wholesale slaughter of Native American tribes…
How about …
1927 – Bath, Michigan School Slaughter – crazed man blows up school killing 38 elementary school children – 2 teachers – 4 other adults – worst school killing in USA (by far…)
1923 – Rosewood Massacre – white mob, acting on accusations of rape, pillage and loot black town – at least 8 killed
1914 – Ludlow Massacre – 14 strikers murdered by strikebusters
1912 – Villisca, Iowa – home invasion – assailants never discovered – entered home – killed 6 children (age 5 – 12) and 2 adults – all butchered with an axe (thank God for gun laws….)
Is that enough for you?
“Killings like this didn’t happen in the 60?s, 70?s, 80?s. Or before that.”
Sure they did. I am an archivist and am currently holding a Dayton Daily News (Ohio) paper from Tuesday, May 31, 1955. The headline: “Berserk Gunman Kills 3 in Shooting Spree; Dies of Wounds in Second Fray.”
so it turns out this guy was influenced by hollywood trash movies- Hmm he painted his hair and called himself the Joker-
Schindler’s List is a historical drama. Gangster Squad appears to be purely fiction with gratuitous violent scenes. No comparison.
Get your head out of the sand. These violent movies are teaching our youth that nothing is real and everything is ok.
Yea, hollywood movies are the reason for the terrible violence happening now in the United States, Mexico, the DRC, etc, etc. I don’t think the cartels in Mexico are killing people because they just watched the Joker in the “Dark Knight.”
Oh, absolutely, professor.
No effect whatsoever on the minds of ANY of those people involved ANYWHERE.
Yep. Boy oh boy, you sure got that one figured out, yep.
How disingenuous of you.
This is a non-issue. Had this morning’s tragedy in Colorado not taken place, the movie trailer in question would not have been a big deal. Complaining about it is a knee jerk reaction.
Except it did! He called himself the Joker idiot
Of course he did. He got caught and now he’s hoping to cop an insanity plea. What better way to do that than to say that he can’t distinguish between reality and a movie?
And yet it’s posted in your article.
Well done Nikki! I don’t understand why a scene of a movie theatre being shot up would EVER make it into the final cut of the film even before this terrible tragedy in Colorado.
Really? Are you responsible for dictating what screenwriters and directors can include in their films?
Oh, maybe you are on the MPAA ratings boards…that would make sense.
LBS,
You are an idiot. Where is it okay to have shooting scenes then? A movie theatre is wrong, but the streets outside it are fine for the action? Why, hell, they should just ban all action scenes involving guns!!
WTF happened to personal responsibility? Of all the hours of action scenes in movies since the silent film era, how many people have gone on to imitate such cinema? Some people are just messed up, it’s not the filmmakers’, studios’, theatres’ or legal gun owners’ fault
Get a life…
oh and i just saw a chair being used to hurt someone… poor guy. A broken chair leg can kill someone! Chairs need to be banned!! Sit on the floor!
Re: wow again. Your comment is simplistic, irrational and plain offensive. I won’t even take the time to explain just how incredibly illogical your statement is.
What that person was commenting on is how dumb it is to blame the violence perpetrated by an individual on inanimate objects. The only one to blame is the sorry excuse for a human being that did this vile deed.
thank you for your response. so many idiots here that intelligence is like fabreze in garbage; smart comments are so very, very welcome.
Right, we need to refrain from making offensive, violent, vulgar, sexual movies and only tell stories about happy people holding hands singing about love and harmony.
No, but it wouldn’t hurt to see more like that. Go research the top 10 TV shows from 40 years ago and then look at the top 10 now. You know what you’ll find? The shows have gotten much more violent, the amount of sexual content has increased dramatically, and there is very little “good” content on TV anymore.
LBS,
You are an idiot. Where is it okay to have shooting scenes then? A movie theatre is wrong, but the streets outside it are fine for the action? Why, hell, they should just ban all action scenes involving guns!!
What happened to personal responsibility? Of all the hours of action scenes in movies since the silent film era, how many people have gone on to imitate such cinema? Some people are just messed up, it’s not the filmmakers’, studios’, theatres’ or legal gun owners’ fault
oh and i just saw a chair being used to hurt someone… poor guy. A broken chair leg can kill someone! Chairs need to be banned!! No more sitting…
Get a life…
Aside from the recent tragedy, I don’t see the trailer as being objectively offensive. It appears as if the shooting is directly into the movie screen and not toward the audience anyhow. Of course, poor timing, but no one anticipated such horrible events.
Shooting into the screen from behind it is shooting toward the audience.
Do yourself a favor and don’t watch Inglorious Basterds if you haven’t already.
Exactly! And, that is a scene that should definitely be seen on a large theatre screen (and with a great sound system).
Why shouldn’t it make it into a film?
Moron.
Her position on this and yours is irrelevant. That trailer and the hissy fit she’s having have absolutely NO correlation to the event and is energy that could be spent focusing on the actual tragedy at hand, rather than trying to posture for attention on something that is not really that clever, or quite frankly, her business. If the Studio wants to pull the trailer out of respect fine, but that’s their decision and even if they didn’t, the two matters are not related, so there’s no reason to get mad over it. [Not to mention it doesn't even make sense that a trailer for a film project that was made months/years ago should somehow be responsible to suffer financially for an unrelated event is just... mind blowing that people even call for this.]
This really amazes me…a movie trailer is causing such a stir?? This is simply a lone nut job who had obvious severe mental issues that did a terrible thing. The movie trailer’s content did not nor will it ever affect or precipitate such an awful event. I have a really hard time when people start blowing normally inane things out of proportion in response to a tragedy. WB is not being insensitive, they are making movies. I guarantee that all the bleeding hearts bemoaning the “insensitivity” of the trailer would not have even batted an eye if they saw it under normal circumstances. Soooooo hypocritical….
Give me a break. First of all, this trailer had nothing to do with the tragedy in Aurora. Second of all, saying that it should never have been made at all is so ridiculous; I haven’t seen anyone complain about it until this post and I guarantee you wouldn’t have been so sensitive to it until this incident occurred. Finally, how is it any better that you have linked to the trailer and continued to give people access to it? It’s hypocritical.
This trailer has been out for weeks and I see nothing wrong with it other than the odd choice of music. It’s a movie. It’s fiction. And I can guarantee you it had nothing to do with this psycho’s actions.
You’re for senseless censorship. Why?
Guess the film of the evil trailer, “Gangster Squad”, needs to be shelved— along with “Neighborhood Watch”!
The mind numbing, politically correct Jihad rolls on!
Hollywood need never whine about “The Black List” ever again— as the perfectly correct little reactionaries within do more damage than HUAC on its best day.
This isn’t about censorship or political correctness, it is about respect to the people killed, injured and effected by the Aurora shootings, as well as not interrupting the enjoyment for people going to The Dark Knight for escapist entertainment. Notice how no one is calling for a change to the content of the film? The studio (and people asking the studio to pull the trailer) are just saying that maybe right now, there are enough people that don’t want to see someone shooting up a movie theater when they are being bombarded with the reality of that very same event outside the theater.
Agreed- Oh I wish I could force people to have feelings, manners, and common SENSE! I don’t know if you all remember, but just about any time a tragedy occurs that is of “national importance” and/or well-known, theatrical reminders of it during sensitive times are pretty much pulled. Sort of like when a movie about a terrorist taking over an airline that was scheduled to show on my TV guide was replaced with something else the day of 911. If you guys are too darn childish to understand the reasons why networks and or theatres change their minds about showing certain things during certain instances, I don’t know what to say to you. If you’d like to make babyish arguments and yell at people for being sensitive, can you go to some website frequented by younger kids?
How about we respect them by honoring their lives and not pretending like every single thing VAGUELY connected should be pulled in fear of offending someone? Do you honestly think the victims would want life to completely stop because some mentally unstable freak goes on a rampage?
We shouldn’t have to start tip toeing around everything because that’s exactly what people like this shooter want. They want the attention to be on them. He wants people to associate TDKR with him and now, The Gangster Squad will be too.
SANE people know the difference between reality and fiction and no sane person is going to look at this and think it’s magically connected.
Let’s honor the lost and move on from this tragedy.
And what exactly does this even mean:
“Here’s the horrible clip which no one at Warner Bros should have allowed to be made, much less released, in the first place”
What’s wrong with this scene exactly? Did Warner Bros shoot it today and get it into the trailer? No? Then why is it a horrible clip?
Brian, I completely agree… there’s a lot of senseless people on this message board, basically saying that everyone is too fragile for this right now, we should pull all violence of the air and out of the theaters, and just watch Barney or Teletubbies until some random time when we are a little less emotional about the incident. The hard truth is that the world is still spinning, and there’s violence around the world, at every turn, and while we should respect the dead, and mourn the loss of loved ones, we cannot give this psychopath any more satisfaction by disrupting our normal day-to-day lives. There have been many massacres throughout history, and there will be many more, and that doesn’t mean that we should try to hide and shelter ourselves from the truth. What Nikki said was that no one should have been allowed to make a violent trailer like that, and that is flat-out wrong, and is asking for the removal of free speech. You cannot run from tragedy, and when it hits, you simply have to cope with it in the best way you can.
Agree! The only thing offensive to me about this preview is that Sean Penn is in it.
Because that’s what knee-jerk overreactionaries do. They say to themselves, fuck being rational and level headed with some perspective, I gotta hype up my bullshit and get those clicks to get paid! Hollywood and their dick riding legions are all smoke and mirrors and idiocy
Well, as a child I remember a TV show having kids in Boston set fire an old, street bum. Sure enough, some kids went out & did just as they saw on the TV show.
So, Hollywood scenes do affect people & there needs to be some responsibility on their part. The Supreme Court, back in the ’30′s finally said freedom of speech does not extend to yelling ‘fire’ in a movie theatre. There has to be limitations.
Violence at a movie infused with violence? Who wudda thought? I’d rather go to the movies with Fred Willard than see the new batman movie.
Sounds like a deal to me.
Yeah, who would have thought. With the overabundance of examples of this happening, every weekend and in every living room in America. Crazy people will alway be crazy, they have always been cray. When we start taking outliers and accepting them as the norm that’s when we begin censoring ourselves into oblivion.
Bring back The Flintstones ….
Nice careful wording there. “AFTER” you complained and “BECAUSE” you complained are two different things.
Stop trying to attach yourself to a national tragedy.
I saw it at 3:45AM this morning and this trailer didn’t play, by the way.
HOLLYWOOD MAKES BEING A BAD GUY LOOKS SO GOOD, SHOW THAT WITH FORCE, YOU GET POWER, WOMEN AND MONIES, NO WONDER IN THIS SCREWED UP WORLD WHERE IT’S OK TO LIE CHEAT AND STEAL, TO DAMAGE PUBLIC PROPERTY AND THE POLICE AND CITY DON’T DO ANYTHING BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE UNDERSTANDING, THE BAD GUY NEVER DIES, THIS IS WHAT HOLLYWOOD TELLS US IS OK
You mad bro?
I know it is very easy to generalize, but it has your comment lacking all intellectual merit. I think it is fair to say that Hollywood makes many different films each with its own themes and morals. Many films do the exact opposite of what you describe. For example, take a movie like The Godfather. Micheal Corleone is a character who starts out virtuous and ends up succeeding his father as a mafia crime boss. In later films we see how this decision results in him living a life of loneliness and isolation.
Sure, and Seven is a great film because you learn in the end that the bad guy has deep personal issues and wasn’t enjoying what he was doing? Movies provide escapism for people whose lives aren’t even a shadow of their ancestors. These poor suckers in their bland unsatisfied lives pay to imagine themselves ‘in a world’ where rape, murder, pedophilia, and war are tangible – and they want it as immersively(is that a word?) as can be procured or they are disappointed.
I’ve walked out of more than one picture. How people can justify pedophilia, rape and murder as entertainment is beyond me.
Violent video games and glorified villins does not help. Take these games away from your kids. Give them a hammer and nails! Show them how to built a bird house or tree house.
Oh yeah, I forgot, all the neighborhood kids are clamoring for a hammer, some nails, and the know-how to build bird houses and fucking treehouses. What fantasy-land do you live in? You think this kid wouldn’t have gone on to kill a bunch of people had he built a fucking bird house??? Moron!
Holloywood must pay just as big tobacco did.
Hoss, it’s not just Hollywood that demonstrates lying, cheating, stealing, drinking, drugging, and raping will take you to the top. Go outside and look around a while.
That being said, there was once a day when you would expect homicidal behavior in any large group of cranky people… and the murderer (if caught) would be fed to lions…
And for a proper rant: I wonder how many of the audience members had a CHL.
If that’s your interpretation of movies that depict violence, I would love to hear your take on hip-hop and the state of women in modern society.
It’s a terrible coincidence. That’s it.
Yep. “a terrible coincidence” and that sums it up.
Right, a guy dressed like a character in the movie approaches from the rear like the movie, throws gas bombs like the movie, starts shooting up the audience like the movie, and has been house rigged with bombs, and is a coincidence. You belong in a movie. A cartoon movie.
Did you even read the article? The trailer for Gangster Squad and the actual movie, Dark Knight Rises, are two entirely different things. The shooter was dressed like a character from the movie, NOT from the trailer. There wasn’t a shooting in a movie theater scene in the Dark Knight Rises. It truly was a coincidence.
Dude, I think you’re missing the point. The problem that’s being discussed has nothing to do with the fact that the shooting was at a Batman film. This is about the continual showing of a trailer depicting a shooting at a movie theater. The coincidence is that this trailer is playing before a film that a shooting at a movie theater occurred at.
Just pay attention next time.
Side note, I saw this trailer months ago, and, as others have said, have no problem with it. It’s just that this tragedy makes the showing of that particular trailer inappropriate. I agree with the sentiment, the trailer should definitely be removed. But saying this scene should’ve never made it into the movie is childish. It’s a film about gang violence.
because we all know this trailer caused the tragedy…
Movie looks like shit and the fake nose on Sean Penn is awful.
Exactly!
Amen.
While I agree that the trailer should have been pulled as soon as physically possible, please explain to me why the clip or the movie should not have been allowed to be made???
How about movies about killing children ? Or animals ? Any difference with what’s out there ? It’s all sick ….
Oh please. As if Warner Bros ever thought this tragedy would happen. How insensitive.
I’m sure my post won’t be even publicized but who cares. You’re oversensitive, Nikki. That’s what’s wrong with all Americans. You’re oversensitive about everything. Movies are movies and life is life.
How was this a horrible trailer BEFORE the shooting?
This movie looks awesome! Can’t wait to see it.
Sad time for country. If you watch the news all you see is American society in decay. Tough times to have to seperate fact from fiction. To find out who you really are. I really feel for the families and friends. I hope somehow they can find some peace. There is no sense to come out of this or much of anything else.
Why would you post the clip?
Maybe to prove this is not about censorship or political correctness. No one is saying people should be allowed to see the clip, just that the trailer should be pulled from theaters so people who might not want to see it right now don’t have to unsuspectingly be subjected to it.
How else to feign outrage and still cash the checks?
You were so appalled that you just had to show the clip yourself!
And then to combine it with the self-righteous tripe “no one at Warner Bros should have allowed to be made”
Seriously, Nikki. why not add on that nauseating bit of “at times like these, one realizes how unimportant in the grand scheme of things the movie/publishing/sports/fill-in-the-blank industry is” that you media members like to pull around you like a shroud before sending us off to another add telling me how white my shirts can be.
The trailer obviously needed to be pulled but where is all of this moral policing coming from? People get shot in trailers all the time, we can’t retroactively condemn this one scene just because it later happened in real life. Unless you’re making a broader point that violence should be removed from all trailers, this position is just knee jerk reactionism
Cough… faking so much outrage… cough off a website that I rely them to make violent movies… cough… which people go and see… cough… so I can write reviews about them and be outraged… cough…
Besides the lousy acting, what is the relationship between this and this morning’s shooting?
Enough with the knee jerk reactions. Taking down this trailer won’t change anything that has happened. Get a grip, stop looking for a pulpit of attention and publicity from such a sad and horrible event.