Movie studios have postponed the opening dates for several films, some out of respect for the tragedies in New York and Washington, D.C., and some because executives can’t secure airtime on the TV networks to promote their multimillion-dollar cinematic investments. Touchstone’s Big Trouble, about a pair of bungling hit men who smuggle a nuclear bomb onto an airplane, falls into the former category. Warner Bros.’ Training Day, a rogue-cop picture starring Denzel Washington, falls into the latter. Both films were scheduled to open Friday, September 21. Training Day has been pushed back to Friday, October 5, while Big Trouble still does not have a new opening date. Speculation is that Trouble, with its implications about poor airport security, will not hit theaters until next year. Two other upcoming films, Paramount Classics’ Sidewalks of New York (originally scheduled for a September 28 opening) and Warner Bros.’ terrorism-themed thriller Collateral Damage (October 5), have been postponed indefinitely. Expect even more changes to the fall lineup if President Bush declares war on America’s elusive enemy.
This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2001.