It was surely too quick of a timeline for Warner Brothers to complete their reshoots on Gangster Squad and generate a new, controversy-dodging edit before the film’s early September release, so now the date change news comes. January 11th, 2013 is the new date, which will put it up against Holiday leftover and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (another punted around film on the calendar).
It’s good that we’ve had such a strong conversation about what atrocity means to our culture, and in what responsible ways such uncomfortable coincidences can be handled. Ultimately though, there was never a real chance WB was going to release a film featuring men shooting automatic weapons through a movie screen into an audience anytime in the next few years, much less months. The imagery — which I bet Armond White would have compellingly argued was already a severely potent visual metaphor — is just too strong, too evocative, and too dangerous for a major studio to swallow.
Frankly, a date change was always appropriate. I’d still prefer the film remain untouched, but if Fleischer and co. are any kind of artists, they’ll make something happen.
Frustrating as it may be, we all still have much more important things to process. I’ll still be looking forward to the film in the new year.
Source | Exhibitor Relations