Arnold Schwarzenegger's upcoming revenge thriller, Collateral Damage, in which he stars as a firefighter whose family is killed when a downtown skyscraper is destroyed in a massive terroist bomb blast, is among those films whose release is up in the air.
The film, directed by The Fugitive helmer Andrew Davis, has the tagline: "What do you do if you lost everything?"
Warner Bros. executives have indefinitely postponed the flick's October 5 release date out of sensitivity to victims, their families and all American citizens. The studio will disconnect the film's Website and recall the trailer, posters and all other advertising materials for the film
"Our hearts and prayers are with the victims of this terrible tragedy and their families," reads a statement on Warner Bros. Website.
Also being postponed is director Barry Sonnenfeld's ensemble comedy Big Trouble, starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo. The film, based on a Dave Barry novel, is a farcical caper that climaxes with a suitcase containing a nuclear bomb being smuggled onto an airplane.
Disney, which had closed its Disney World and Disneyland theme parks on Tuesday (the parks have since reopened), pulled the plug on this weekend's Big Trouble press junkets and pushed the film's release from September 21 until next year.
All critics' screenings this week for Ed Burns' latest romantic comedy, Sidewalks of New York, have been postponed until November. The film itself, which was supposed to be out September 21, is being delayed for at least two months.
And Sony yanked a trailer for next summer's Spider-Man, in which bad guys get trapped in a spider web strung between the two towers of the World Trade Center. A Sony spokeswoman says the sequence was used in the trailer but not the film.
"Due to the devastating events that took place yesterday and out of respect for those involved, Sony Pictures Entertainment is requesting that all Spider-Man teaser posters and trailers be taken down and returned to the studio," Sony said in a statement.
Most Hollywood studios temporarily ceased production on their films after receiving word of the catastrophe. Nearly all movie chains closed their theaters in big cities.
Shooting on Sonnenfeld's Men in Black II on Sony's Culver City, California, lot ground to a halt, while Fox suspended work on its animated flick, The Ice Age, currently being assembled at Blue Sky Studios in suburban White Plains, New York.
In fact, DreamWorks' The Tuxedo, starring Jackie Chan, was the only film not put on hold by the tragedy. The action-comedy was shooting in Toronto when they got news of the terrorist attacks.
Meanwhile, ABC has pulled Saturday's broadcast of The Peacemaker, starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman as a U.S. Army colonel and a civilian woman trying to stop terrorists from getting their hands on stolen Russian nuclear weapons. And Fox has nixed an airing of Independence Day on Sunday.
Movie studios and production companies also sent their employees home Tuesday but kept their switchboards open so workers could check in for information. Paramount, MGM, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Fox, Universal and Sony reopened their doors on Wednesday.