***UDPATE: Deadline Hollywood reports that WB will announce a January 11, 2013 bow for “Squad,” but that specific date has yet to be confirmed.
Since news broke of the shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros. has been very careful and gracious in its endeavors to be respectful to those who were directly affected by the tragedy. For example, within 24 hours, a trailer for the studio’s fall release Gangster Squad, in which theater attendees are killed by gunfire, was removed from reels playing before last weekend's blockbuster.
Yesterday, we learned the studio would remove the theater shooting scene from the Ruben Fleischer-helmed mob action/drama and film reshoots to fill in the gaps. However, the film is currently set to hit theaters on Sep. 7, and there doesn’t seem to be enough time to meet that goal.
“Squad” press screenings have already been cancelled, and Variety now reports that WB might push the film back to 2013 to accommodate the reshoots (and no doubt give time for audiences to heal from last Friday's tragic news).
If the date does get changed, I think the removal of the theater-shooting sequence and consequent filming of alternate footage would be superfluous at best and absolutely unnecessary at worst.
There is no word on when "Squad" would open if pushed to 2013.
