Line #10 DistancedFromCurrentEvents/Film


1	* The first treatment of ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' [[https://www.eonline.com/news/706200/disney-myths-debunked-by-ron-clements-and-john-musker-directors-of-the-little-mermaid-aladdin-and-hercules was set in Baghdad.]] After the Gulf War broke out, Roy Disney demanded this be changed, so co-director John Musker came up with the "jumbled anagram" of Agrabah.
2	* ''Film/ArlingtonRoad'''s release date was pushed back to July 9, 1999 from its original May 14, 1999 release date, due to the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} High School shootings, although the studio claimed they wanted to avoid competition from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', which came out the following weekend of Arlington Road's original release date.
3	* Following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, FX scrapped a planned airing of ''Film/Armageddon1998'' because the opening depicted a space shuttle being destroyed.
4	* Creator/{{NBC}}'s made-for-TV movie ''Film/AtomicTrain'' was preempted by UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} affiliate KUSA out of sympathy for the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre, and the fact that it depicted the destruction of the city.
5	* In ''Film/AustinPowersInternationalManOfMystery'', No. 2 informs Dr. Evil that his plan to end the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales has been overtaken by real-life events - an exchange cut from the British release, thanks to another far more tragic real-life event involving the Princess of Wales which happened the week before.
6	* ''The Bad Seed Returns'', the sequel to ''Film/TheBadSeed2018'' was set to air on Creator/{{Lifetime}} on Memorial Day weekend however, the movie was postponed in the wake of the May 24, 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas in which 19 students and two teachers were killed [[note]]Especially given that the movie's plot revolves around a character being bullied[[/note]]. Ironically the movie's star [=McKenna=] Grace hails from Texas.
7	* The film ''Blue Story'', which was about street gangs in London, was pulled from theaters across the UK after a machete fight occurred at a screening of ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII''.
8	* Advertisements for the 1991 B horror film ''Body Parts'', in which the protagonist whose arm is severed in an accident receives a limb transplant from a dead serial killer, were pulled in Wisconsin because the promotion and release of the film coincided with the discovery of the Jeffrey Dahmer killings. The city of Milwaukee also elected not to show the film in theaters out of respect for the victims.
9	* ''Film/TheBoondockSaints'' was set to be released in theatres the same ''week'' as the Columbine shootings, and ended up having an extremely limited release (five theatres in the country, for one week). The film would've been doomed by the coincidence then and there had people not started talking about it to their friends and pen pals and brought about high sales of the DVD, causing it to become a major CultClassic and leading to a sequel.
10	* '''Hours''' before ''Film/Bruno2009'''s red-carpet premiere in Los Angeles, Music/MichaelJackson died, so Universal [[http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/2009/06/universal-trims-latoya-jackson-from-bruno.html cut a scene]] where Bruno interviews [=LaToya=] Jackson and steals her phone to get Michael Jackson's phone number, a trim that was confirmed for the [[http://us.imdb.com/news/ns0000002/#ni0870531 general release as well]] (though it did later turn up on DVD as a deleted scene).
11	* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]] with the 2013 version of ''Film/{{Carrie\|2013}}'', with its release date being pushed back from March 15 to October 18, just two months before its planned release date. The studio's explanation was that it was to take advantage of the lucrative [[UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve Halloween]] market for horror films, but director Kimberly Peirce [[http://www.out.com/entertainment/movies/2013/01/07/kimberly-peirce-carrie-adaptation-terrorists contends]] that the real reason was the Sandy Hook shooting making it uncomfortable to release a film with ''Carrie''[='=]s subject matter (a bullied high school student who ends up murdering her classmates at the prom in the climax) just three months afterwards.
12	* The red-carpet premieres of ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' in France, Mexico, and Japan were cancelled in the wake of the horrific shooting on the film's North American opening day (July 20, 2012) when a SpreeKiller stormed a midnight showing in Aurora, Colorado. Twelve people were killed and seventy more were injured, and to make matters worse, the gunman called himself ComicBook/TheJoker after he was arrested. Ads touting the movie were been pulled, and Warner Bros. opted to give final box office updates for the film on Monday, rather than through the weekend, out of respect for the victims of the Aurora shooting.
13	* Attempted by ''Film/DeathWish2018'', when MGM pushed the movie from November 2017 to February 2018 after the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the film’s new release ended up being two weeks after the Parkland shooting.
14	* In ''Film/DemolitionMan'' (released in 1993), a scene has [[BigBad Simon Phoenix]] looking over a future cryo prison list of inmates and shouting "Jeffrey Dahmer? I ''love'' that guy!". Dahmer was bludgeoned to death in prison by another inmate in 1994, leading TV broadcasts of the movie to cut out that line.
15	* After Cameron Boyce, who plays Carlos in the film, suffered a fatal seizure, the Hollywood premiere of ''Film/Descendants3'' was cancelled out of respect for him.
16	* The Enzian Theater, an independent Central Florida-based movie theater, was planning on doing a special screening of ''Film/DieHard'' for Father's Day in 2016, but following the events of the Pulse nightclub shooting, it was pulled and replaced with a screening of ''Film/{{Airplane}}''.
17	* A showing of ''Film/DieHard2'' was delayed in the UK and instead replaced with the showing of the Creator/SylvesterStallone movie ''Film/{{Cliffhanger}}''. The reason for this was because there had been a recent incident at Glasgow Airport involving a flaming car crashing into the building, and with the movie being set in an airport they probably thought showing it would be in bad taste.
18	* Trailers for the film ''Film/TheDilemma'' were pulled due to Vince Vaughn's character describing hybrid cars as gay ("but not in a homosexual way") [[http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-anderson-cooper-gay-joke,0,5367496.story after a rash of gay teen suicides.]]
19	* ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', ''Film/JackReacher'' and ''Film/ParentalGuidance'' had their respective red carpet premieres cancelled following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
20	* ''Film/DrStrangelove'':
21	** The release of the movie was delayed several weeks due to the Kennedy assassination.
22	** One of Slim Pickens' [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/quotes?qt0454447 lines]] was also re-dubbed: "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas[[labelnote:*]]originally Dallas[[/labelnote]] with all that stuff."
23	** It originally ended with a pie fight in the War Room, and at one point the President is hit, prompting the line "Our gallant President has been struck down in his prime!".
24	* Some of the promotional posters for ''WesternAnimation/Elemental2023'' were parodies of previous Pixar films, and were posted online. However, [[https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/File:Elemental_-_Burning_Red.jpg Ember's poster]] (which parodied ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'') was quickly taken down due to the Canadian wildfires that were happening during the time.
25	* The horror ''Film/EscapeRoom2019'' had its release in Polish cinemas cancelled after five people died in a fire in an escape room in Poland, just a week before the scheduled release date. The film was instead released on DVD a few months later.
26	* Creator/WarnerBros was advised shortly after the {{Video Nast\|ies}}y crisis that it would be too soon to attempt a home video re-release of ''Film/TheExorcist'' (which was always legal to exhibit in theatres, mind you), which ultimately didn't return to shelves in the UK until 1999. Japan and the US got Laserdisc releases before then.
27	* ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheSecretsOfDumbledore'' had its second trailer pulled from its previously announced release on February 24, 2022 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began the previous evening.
28	* In ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'', there was originally a scene in which Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane would visit a Chicago radio station and Ferris would talk about how "come next year, I'll be the first kid to ride on the Space Shuttle". It was even featured in the film's trailer. Unfortunately, however, less than five months before the film was released, the space shuttle ''Challenger'' exploded 73 seconds after launch, resulting in the deaths of all seven aboard, including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa [=McAuliffe=]. Because of this, Creator/JohnHughes [[MissingTrailerScene had the trailer recalled from theaters and the line was edited out of the final film]].
29	* The release of ''Film/FlyAwayHome'', about a thirteen-year-old girl leading a flock of Canada geese to their nesting site by flying a hang-glider, was delayed for several months following the death of seven-year-old Jessica Dubroff in an attempt to become the youngest person to fly across the United States.
30	* ''Film/GangsterSquad'' was hit badly because of the Aurora shooting. Not only was it pushed back from September 2012 to January 2013, but '''the entire ending had to be rewritten and reshot''' due to its depiction of gangsters shooting up a movie theater. The trailer, which included scenes from that shootout (and which [[HarsherInHindsight played in front of]] ''The Dark Knight Rises'' at many theaters), had to be pulled and redone for the same reason. Only time will tell if the offending sequence will ever see the light of day. Talk about bad timing.
31	* ''Film/GetOut2017'' was originally supposed to have a DownerEnding where [[spoiler:Chris would've escaped Rose's family, only to be killed or arrested by a racist cop while fleeing the scene]]. This was instead changed to [[spoiler:a BaitAndSwitch ending where a cop car pulls up next to Chris, only for it to be revealed that the driver is his friend Rod, who is there to rescue him]]. Director Jordan Peele says the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown convinced him to go with a more hopeful, escapist ending where [[spoiler:the black guy actually gets to survive his ordeal]].
32	* The release of Creator/BenAffleck's ''Film/GoneBabyGone'' was [[LateExportForYou delayed in the UK]] because there were parallels to the recent disappearance of Madeline [=McCann=].
33	* In wake of the death of George Floyd, Creator/HBOMax pulled ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' so that a {{content warning}} could be added concerning the film's content.
34	* The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 resulted in the temporary removal of a joke in one scene where his name comes up as a punchline, ''Film/GuessWhosComingToDinner''.
35	* ''Film/HappyDeathDay2U'''s release date was bumped up from Feb 14, 2019, to Feb 13, 2019, so it wouldn't fall on the first anniversary of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Screenings were pulled altogether in the area surrounding Parkland, Florida, where the shooting took place.
36	* Creator/WarnerBros pulled the Creator/ClintEastwood[=-directed=] film ''Film/{{Hereafter}}'' from Japanese theaters after the Sendai earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 (less than a month after its release in that country), as the film's opening sequence contains a harrowing tsunami disaster.
37	* ''Film/HistoryOfTheWorldPartI'': In an interview with Creator/GeneSiskel, Creator/MelBrooks revealed that he'd filmed a brief scene that made light of the notorious Three Mile Island incident. "I had a father and a mother made up to look like half a dog and half a cat as a result of a nuclear meltdown," Brooks told Siskel. When test audiences reacted poorly, this bit was removed. However, at least one journalist managed to see an extended cut which contained the footage.
38	* ''Film/HotelMumbai'' was pulled from New Zealand movie theaters for 2 weeks following the March 15, 2019 Christchchurch mosque shootings.
39	* Creator/{{Universal}} Studios pulled marketing material, then later cancelled the original September 27th, 2019 release of the movie ''Film/TheHunt2020'' in the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, which killed 22 people and Dayton, Ohio which killed nine people, merely saying that "now is not the right time to release this film". It doesn't help that the film had already garnered controversy over its plot (liberal "elites" versus conservative "deplorables") by both sides of the political spectrum. The release date was eventually moved to March 13, 2020 after spending a few months in TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment.
40	* Ten days before ''Film/IdleHands'' came out, the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre happened, casting a very dark shadow in the HorrorComedy about a high schooler whose EvilHand goes on a slaughter. Columbia thought about delaying but still released it, albeit cancelling the premiere and several theaters decided not to screen the movie(mainly those in Colorado since it was the state of the school shooting).
41	* The film ''I Love You, Daddy'', written, directed by, and starring Creator/LouisCK, was originally set for a limited release on November 17, 2017, having attracted plenty of award-season buzz after being filmed in secret over the summer. However, it was pulled indefinitely by its distributor just a week before it came out after CK confessed to several instances of sexual harassment, which was very similar to the movie's plot of a Hollywood producer trying to stop his teenage daughter from dating a 70-year-old film director (who was heavily based on Woody Allen).
42	* ''Film/InTheHeights'' changed a lyric from the original production -- "Donald Trump and I own the links and he's my caddy!" -- to instead reference Tiger Woods. This was a carry-over from other then-recent stage productions of ''In the Heights'' that were produced during Trump's extremely controversial presidency.
43	* ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' aired on Starz Kids at 2:00AM EST on March 22, 2016. The film reached the point where [[spoiler: Joy and Bing Bong fall into the memory dump]] just as the Brussels attacks began. Starz responded to this by pulling most of the planned airings of the film (which were supposed to be aired [[AdoredByTheNetwork every single day for the next 14 days]]) across their networks and either replaced them with other films such as ''Film/LookWhosTalking'', ''Film/{{Cinderella\|2015}}'' and ''Film/{{Pixels}}'', or showed the film during prime time or early in the morning.
44	* A showing of ''Film/It1990'' was pulled from UK television following the recent murder of ten-year-olds [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_murders Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.]]
45	* Similarly a showing of ''Film/TheToweringInferno'' was pulled because a few days earlier 72 people had died in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire Grenfell Tower disaster.]]
46	* InUniverse example for ''Film/JurassicWorld'', when Lowery shows Claire the T-shirt bearing the original [[Film/JurassicPark1993 park's]] logo (one of the unused [[TheMerch original shirts from the first park]], which he paid a lot for on eBay), Claire responds with distaste at how the original logo serves as a reminder of all the people who died in the events of the first film.
47	* The James Bulger murder, which killed any chance of ''Film/{{Mikey}}'' [[BannedInChina ever being released in Britain for the foreseeable future]], also delayed a re-release of at least one {{Video Nast\|ies}}y, ''[[Film/HellOfTheLivingDead Zombie Creeping Flesh]]'', for the next several years; the BBFC told the distributors that now would not be the best time to submit the film for rating. It wasn't until 2002 that the BBFC decided to accept a submission of the film, and the distributors' patience was duly rewarded: the film was rated 18 uncut. Interestingly, the video release of Creator/QuentinTarantino's ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' was held up until 1995 for the same reason.
48	* When ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera'' was re-released during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, several lines mentioning Italy were deleted from almost all surviving prints, leaving them unheard for several decades until a print with the offending material intact was discovered in Hungary in 2008.
49	* Creator/WesCraven's original vision for ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984'' was to make his villain Freddy Krueger a child molester and rapist as well as a child killer, but had to excise this little detail because he wanted to avoid being accused of exploiting a series of highly-publicized child molestations that was happening in California at the time the movie was being made. [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet2010 The 2010 remake]], though, restores said detail.
50	* ''Film/{{O}}'' was delayed after the Columbine shootings, since the film featured gun violence among high school students. It was postponed from its October 1999 release date and wasn't released until August 2001, with Creator/{{Miramax}} [[ChannelHop selling the distribution rights]] to Creator/{{Lionsgate}}.
51	* ''Film/OperationFortuneRuseDeGuerre'' had already been pushed forward due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but then the UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} caused nearly a year in the shelf, given the filmmakers thought it would be in bad taste to issue a movie with Ukrainian henchmen. Eventually the film came out overseas in January 2023 with the U.S. release date moved to March 3rd of that year.
52	* ''Film/PhoneBooth'', the Colin Farell movie with his character stuck in a phone booth at the mercy of a sniper (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland), was originally supposed to be released in October 2002. In light of the D.C. Sniper attacks, it was moved to April 2003.
53	* NTV didn't show ''Anime/{{Ponyo}}'' for two years because of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
54	* In 1966, Creator/{{CBS}} pulled an airing of ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' at the last minute in response to the murder of U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy's daughter just days before it was to air, replacing it with ''Kings Go Forth''.
55	* Creator/{{ITV}} pulled an airing of ''Literature/TheRailwayChildren'' (their adaptation) three days after the Ufton Nervet rail crash in 2004.
56	* Following Haruki Kadokawa's arrest for drug smuggling, his LiveActionAdaptation of ''Rex: A Dinosaur Story'', another Creator/{{CLAMP}} manga (see Anime/Manga for another example of CLAMP falling victim to this trope), was pulled from theatres. [[FranchiseKiller No further attempts have been made at live-action films of CLAMP's manga since.]]
57	* As a result of the Columbine shooting, ''Film/{{Scream 3}}'' was delayed several months and almost completely rewritten. The original script was about a group of [[LoonyFan obsessive fans]] of the ''[[ShowWithinAShow Stab]]'' films, the ''Scream'' series' [[CelebrityParadox in-universe version of itself]], who put on Ghostface masks and started killing for real in imitation of their screen idols. Given that Columbine caused a [[MurderSimulators moral panic over violence in the media]], with many MoralGuardians saying that the killers' love of violent movies and video games had warped their minds, a story like this was never going to fly, and the third ''Scream'' film was turned into a HorribleHollywood story about production on ''Stab 3'' being derailed by a new killer targeting the cast and crew. (Kevin Williamson would later [[DivorcedInstallment recycle]] his original idea for ''Scream 3'' into the TV series ''Series/TheFollowing'', with the deranged movie fans turned into [[MonsterFangirl deranged fans of an actual serial killer]].)
58	* ''Film/SmallSoldiers'':
59	** The original cut included a scene of the Commando Elite pointing their guns at Phil Fimple (who was played by Creator/PhilHartman), as well as him saying "I think I'm having an aneurysm." These scenes had to be edited down after Hartman was shot and killed just over a month before the movie came out.
60	** The Kip Killigan toy was not distributed in Oregon, as a teen called Kip Kinkel went on a shooting spree there shortly before the film was released.
61	* The release of ''Film/SpaceCamp'', originally scheduled for early 1986, was pushed back several months following the ''Challenger'' disaster.
62	* ''Film/SteamboatBillJr'' was originally meant to incorporate a large flood as the disaster that hits the town. However, due to a real Mississippi flood and bickering amongst the producers, the flood plot was changed to a "cyclone."
63	* ''Film/{{Sully}}'' had its Brazilian release postponed by two weeks given a few days before its scheduled debut [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaMia_Airlines_Flight_2933 an airplane taking a local team to Colombia crashed, killing 71 people]], even if ''Sully'' is about a plane ''saved'' from such a disaster by its pilot.
64	* ''Film/{{Targets}}'' had its release delayed due to the assassinations of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr and UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy, which ultimately ended up hurting it at the box office. However, it's since been VindicatedByHistory.
65	* ''Film/TeachingMrsTingle'', about high schoolers getting revenge on their teacher, was retitled from "Killing Mrs. Tingle" because of Columbine.
66	* The 3D version of ''Film/TopGun'' was not released until February 2013 due to director Tony Scott's passing; though he lived to see its completion, Paramount apparently didn't want the release to be seen as exploitative, and given that post-converted 3D already has enough of a bad reputation as it is...
67	* After John Lasseter's resignation from Disney/Pixar following allegations of sexual misconduct, a CastingCouch {{Hilarious Outtake\|s}} involving Stinky Pete and the Barbies ("I’m sure I could get you a part in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''...") was removed for the 2019 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital releases of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2''.
68	* The Creator/WalterHill film ''Trespass'' was originally titled ''Looters'' and was scheduled for release in summer 1992. After the L.A. riots, the film was pushed back to December and had its title changed to avoid negative connotations.
69	* The Creator/BenStiller movie ''Neighborhood Watch'', about suburban dads who form a neighborhood watch and end up fighting aliens, had its marketing pulled from movie theaters in the wake of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin Trayvon Martin]] by a neighborhood watch man in Sanford, Florida. The film was subsequently renamed ''Film/{{The Watch\|2012}}'', with the marketing revamped to focus more on the alien aspect than the neighborhood watch.
70	* The Norwegian theatrical release of ''Film/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin'' (a movie about a mother dealing with the fact that her son had massacred the kids at his school) was postponed from autumn 2011 to 2012 due to the recent Utoya massacre. This massacre is also the probable reason why it saw little distribution and [[AwardSnub got snubbed at the Oscars]].
71	* ''Film/WildMen'', a Danish film that takes place in Norway and prominently features bowhunting, had its premiere postponed after a Danish citizen used a bow and arrows (including other weapons) during an attack in Norway that killed five people.
72	* Amazon Studios cancelled the red carpet premiere of Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Wonder Wheel'' after their CEO Roy Price got caught up in the Great Hollywood Sex Scandal of 2017; Allen was already just another celebrity to have been caught up in a sex scandal by that point.
73	* ''Film/{{Wonder Woman\|2017}}'' had its London premiere cancelled after the 2017 terrorist bombing in Manchester. The same thing ended up happening with ''Film/{{The Mummy\|2017}}''[='=]s UK premiere as well.
74	* This is the reason why then-regular Creator/LucioFulci collaborator Dardano Sacchetti is uncredited for his work on ''Film/{{Zombi 2}}''. Specifically, his father had died before the film premiered, and he didn't wish at the time to be associated with a film where the dead come back to life only to be killed a second time.
75	* The 2021 [[MediaNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward Golden Raspberry Awards]] had a one-off "Worst Performance by Creator/BruceWillis in a 2021 Movie" category, making fun of the actor's prolific B-movie work. A week later, Willis' family publicly revealed that he had been diagnosed with aphasia (later confirmed to be dementia) and would retire from acting, which came after several years of rumors surrounding his physical health and ability to consent to accepting his film roles. After initial backlash to the Razzie's taking the announcement lightly, they revoked the award and apologised. Guess that's why you do '''not''' bash actors at worst movie awards.

Context DistancedFromCurrentEvents / Film