Trayvon Martin Fallout: Fox Scraps Spots for Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn's Neighborhood Watch

Out of sensitivity to the unfolding drama over the high school student's shooting, Fox opts to yank ads for Neighborhood Watch in the Sunshine State

Talk about very bad timing.

Movie goers in Florida will have to check the web if they want to catch a glimpse of the upcoming Ben Stiller-Vince Vaughn comedy, Neighborhood Watch.

That's because 20th Century Fox has yanked the movie's teaser trailer and poster from theaters in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing.

The studio said that it made the decision out of consideration to the uproar that's captivated the state and the nation after neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman shot the unarmed black teen in the Central Florida community of Sanford.

"We are very sensitive to the Trayvon Martin case, but our film is a broad alien-invasion comedy and bears absolutely no relation to the tragic events in Florida," said a Fox rep in a statement obtained by E! News. "The movie, which is not scheduled for release for several months, was made and these initial marketing materials were released before this incident ever came to light. The teaser materials were part of an early phase of our marketing and were never planned for long-term use. Above all else, our thoughts go out to the families touched by this terrible event."

The preview in question features suburbanites Stiller, Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade crusing around in a minivan keeping an eye on the neighborhood to the tune of Dr. Dre's thumping hit, "Still Dre." What follows is a montage of shots including children jumping rope, a postal worker dropping mail, and a mom and her son who's bicycling while Hill makes a shooting motion with his hand. The quartet then make a citizen's arrest on a kid who assaulted them with eggs.

The movie poster meanwhile shows the silhouette of an alien over a neighborhood watch street sign riddled with bullet holes.

The trailer remains up online as of press time and there's no word whether Fox intends to remove it. Instead, the studio said it intends to forge ahead with the second stage of its marketing plan, which we presume will detail the movie's real plot—the coming alien invasion these four cut-ups will have to stop.

Neighborhood Watch is scheduled to open in theaters on July 27.