What if I told you that the release of the horrific Ray Rice elevator video this week altered this week’s movie releases?
Well, it appears it has. Suddenly, abruptly, Screen Gems cancelled preview screenings of “No Good Deed,” a thriller starring Idris Elba (“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”) and Taraji P. Henson (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”). Though the official reason was due to a “plot twist” that they didn’t want to give away, the real reason is likely that the film’s plot hits a little too close to home.
“Deed” features a plot where a man (Elba) meets and charms a woman (Henson) who helps him in a time of need. Turns out the man is a dangerous escaped convict, and soon menaces the woman and her family.
With themes of man-on-woman violence, the studio likely reconsidered the screenings to let the fervor die down, instead giving the already-under-the-radar flick an even lower-key release Friday, but without legions of critics, bloggers, and preview screening guests lambasting its poor timing online. The movie still opens Friday in the U.S., but won’t benefit from the additional publicity (though it arguably has gotten plenty more just from this news).
This is hardly the first time a major news event altered our weekend entertainment plans. In response to the Aurora, Colorado Dark Knight Rises theater shooting, filmmakers pulled the flick “Gangster Squad” and conducted reshoots to remove a sequence that included a shootout in the theater. In late 2001, Sony altered publicity images for its upcoming “Spider-Man” film by removing references to the World Trade Center, including the film’s first teaser trailer (you can still see the trailer on YouTube).
Good, bad, or indifferent, the release of the video has been this week’s news sensation, opening dialogs about domestic violence, fame, and the media. It certainly has had effects on many aspects of society. It’s interesting to see other unintended effects like this.
