TV and movies retool after attack

The Michigan Partisan

By Page W. H. Brousseau IV
TIMES STAFF WRITER

The events of the past few weeks have reminded America of our need for distraction. Whether it is sports, TV or movies our culture is built around the entertainment industry, however, those who are in charge of what we watch, and what TV shows or movies that we will remember for years to come, are scrambling to avoid appearing insensitive, ignorant, or just plain moronic.

TV: With nearly one week of continuous live coverage of the attack and aftermath on the broadcast channels, many new and returning shows that were poised to launch were forced back weeks. With the estimated millions of dollars the broadcast stations lost from revenue, the drive to promote the upcoming season is intense, if somewhat subdued.

The major change is not the effect on schedule but script. The hit NBC show "Friends" was to have an episode take place in an airport with Chandler causing a stir by mentioning the word "bomb". An NBC exec now says that no longer seems funny and the show has been re-shot. NBC has postponed the first episode of "The West Wing" in order to broadcast a special episode Aaron Sorkin wrote after the attacks.

CBS is trying to decide on how' to promote "The Agency", which is a new series about the CIA, and produced by acclaimed film director Wolfgang Petersen.

The series revolves around CIA agents combating terrorism and international crime. CBS has already decided on substituting the premier episode for an episode scheduled to run the following week. The first episode revolved around Osama bin Laden and a bomb at Harrod's department store in London. CBS has not decided if the premier episode will ever be broadcasted.

One of the most anticipated new shows of the season was FOX's "24". "24" involves a federal agent, played by Kiefer Sutherland, trying to stop the assassination of an African-American man run-fling for President. "24" is probably the most innovative series that has been developed or green lighted by a network brain trust in the past few years.

The entire 24 episode season involves one day, with each episode comprising one hour of each day, the first episode deals with 12 midnight to I a.m., episode two goes from I a.m. to 2 a.m., so on and so forth. However, the first episode involved a hijacked plane, which subsequently blows up. FOX had over half the season filmed at the time of the attack so any elimination of this major plot point would cause the re-shooting and reediting of the entire season.

FOX has now decided to broadcast the premier on November 6th with the airplane explosion edited out with promotion now focused on Sutherland's character and the pursuit of the terrorist. Movies: Like Television, movie execs delayed nearly all the major movies that were scheduled to open during the weeks following the attacks. Many delayed movies will open in the coming weeks, however, some have been delayed indefinitely to avoid being insensitive, and further following TV's lead, others are delayed for re-shooting and script changes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest film, "Collateral Damage", which is about a fireman losing his wife and daughter to a terrorist bombing of a high rise is now delayed indefinitely". With the events that transpired on 9-11 and any following retaliatory response, the studio obviously did not want the public to associate the film with the term "collateral damage" when it now has real implications.

"Men in Black 2" had a scene involving alien space craft zooming out of The World Trade Center. Reports now say the Chrysler Building will be used for the film.

"Spiderman" faced a similar problem; with early trailers showing Spidey catching bank robbers, fleeing in a helicopter in a web Weaved between the two, now destroyed towers. The trailers which showed the towers being beautifully lit in a golden glow, have been recalled along with Posters featuring the WTC reflecting in the Web-s1inger's eyes. "Spiderman" faced a similar problem; with early trailers showing Spidey catching bank robbers, fleeing in a helicopter, in a web weaved between the two, now destroyed, towers. The trailers, which showed the towers being beautifully lit in a golden glow, have been recalled along with posters featuring the WTC reflecting in the Web-Slinger's eyes.

Because of the heightened climate we are now in, the Tim Allen comedy, "Big Trouble", has been pushed back to 2002. The reason is a scene involving a bomb in a suitcase on a plane is now has to be reworked.

"The Time Machine" remake was announced delayed from Christmas to February the day before the attack, flow the Special effects engineers are using the time to delete a Scene where an accident on the moon causes a large Chunk of the moon to blow off and land on Manhattan.

The production on the remake of "War of the Worlds" is on hiatus until producers can settle on how to make an apocalyptic movie in the wake of 9-11. According to MGM, Jackie Chan's "Nosebleed", which is about a WTC window washer discovering a terrorist plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty, is understandably being reworked.

Too often Hollywood and TV try to exploit tragedy to make money. Now it seems we may have a reprieve on such fair, if only for a month or so.

There is a fine line between being sensitive and going overboard, such as the consideration of the total elimination of the WTC from upcoming DVD releases of "Final Fantasy" and "A.I.", seems a bit drastic. Since both films take place in the future, they are not technically accurate, but it is impossible to be technically accurate of the future in movies, and that adds to the element of sci-fi. We are used to studio and TV executives making a living on dealing in an imaginary world, but it is quite uncomfortable when we have to watch them deal in reality in this way.