Hollywood Back In Business
The entertainment industry, put on hold for almost a week by the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, is slowly getting back to normal.
Broadway, which went dark for several days, resumed performances at the end of the week, but the nation’s television networks did not return to normal programming until the weekend. Even so, some programming will be changed to avoid unpleasant reminders of the attack in the coming weeks as the new TV season gets under way.
And while Americans began going to the movies again over the weekend, the interest in high-hearted , escapist fare was evident, reports CBS Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd.
The Latin Grammy awards ceremony, which had been scheduled for Sept. 11, the day of the attacks, are canceled. Winners will be notified and the awards will be sent by mail.
The annual prime-time Emmy awards ceremony, which had been scheduled for Sept. 16, was postponed to Sunday, Oct. 7., on CBS. Ellen DeGeneres is still hosting, but the entire ceremony will have a much more somber tone with fewer jokes.
The Miss America pageant is going on as scheduled Saturday, Sept. 22, but the parade that is held the night before is being canceled for the first time in the pageant’s 80-year history.
The start of the fall TV season, scheduled for this week, has been postponed a week and will begin instead next Monday. Some of the new shows, which deal with espionage and terrorism, are being retooled.
For example, a new CBS how “The Agency" has a line in the pilot about Osama bin Laden and a plan to blow up a store in London. Producers have taken that line out and are re-editing the piece.
Fox’s “24,” one of the most eagerly awaited shows of the season, has several episodes that deal with terrorism and the network has pulled all ads for the show that deal with that topic. ABC’s “Alias” also has a CIA theme.
Walt Disney Co.'s Touchstone Pictures postponed the Sept. 21 premiere of comedy film "Big Trouble," starring Tim Allen, and AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. delayed its Oct. 5 release of "Collateral Damage," in which Arnold Schwarzenegger goes after terrorists.
Based on a novel by humorist Dave Barry, "Big Trouble" follows a group of people who find a mysterious suitcase leading to a terrorist plot revolving around a black-market nuclear bomb, shady businessmen, FBI agents and hit men. Although it is a comedy, it has a scene that involves a bomb on a plane. It’s release has been delayed until some time in 2002.
In "Collateral Damage," Schwarzenegger portrays a fireman who sees his wife and son die in the terrorist bombing of a building. But when he travels to South America to avenge the deaths, he finds himself caught up in political intrigue. Warner Brothers has no plans to release it at the moment.
Warner Brothers also has postponed for a few weeks the opening of Denzel Washington’"Training Day." The movie, which also stars Ethan Hawke, doesn’t have anything to do with terrorism but Warner Brothers believes it has a good movie and because of the news coverage, the studio hasn't had a chance to promote it.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, a division of Japan's Sony Corp., pulled from theaters trailers for next May's "Spider-Man" in which bank robbers are caught in a web spun between the World Trade Center towers. Sony also recalled posters in which the towers are shown in a reflection of the comic book hero's eyes.
Surprisingly, box-office receipts for the weekend were up over last year, a weekend gross of $61.2 million, up about 29 percent from the $47.4 million total for the comparable weekend last year. The top-grossing film was “Hardball,” Keanu Reeves’ Little League comedy-drama. It took in $10.1 million at 2,137 theaters, according to Hollywood.com.
CBS and Paramount are units of Viacom Inc., and Fox is a division of Fox Entertainment Group Inc., which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Ltd.
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