'Gangster Squad' Trailer Pulled Immediately From 'The Dark Knight Rises'
by Sean Comer
According to TheWrap.com, Warner Bros. executives decided this morning that a trailer for the upcoming "Gangster Squad" will be immediately pulled from all showings of "The Dark Knight Rises."
Executives chose to yank the trailer hours after 24-year-old James Holmes' shooting spree at an Aurora, Colo. midnight premiere of Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel left 12 people dead and more than 50 injured. Holmes stormed into a theater in a bullet-proof vest and riot helmet, set off a smoke bomb, then marched down an aisle opening fire.
The eliminated trailer for the Ryan Gosling-Sean Penn drama features two gunmen shooting through a movie screen. Incidentally, though it had played before other screenings, it did not play before the screening Holmes stormed. Warner Bros. executives didn't state whether the trailer would be re-cut to eliminate footage now obviously in poor taste.
The trailer is still available online, including YouTube. The questionable moment in which multiple gunmen fire through the screen "into" the viewing audience before stepping through, still firing, occurs at the trailer's end. It would be a fairly simple re-cut. We've posted the clip below, but choosing to pass up viewing it would be completely understandable. It's to your discretion.