Spineless studio snubs sniper

Hollywood's done it again, folks. Just when you thought those "sharks" in suits couldn't become anymore pansy -- they have. The geniuses at 20th Century Fox have decided to indefinitely halt the release of "Phone Booth," a high-concept thriller originally set for release around Thanksgiving, due to the recent attacks of the infamous D.C. sniper.\nWhen is this whole scenario of commerce designed as censorship and censorship designed as commerce going to stop? Within the past few years alone, many films of merit have been shelved because some exec's quaking in his or her panties.\nJust look at "O," the modern-day, high school-set adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Othello" starring Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles and Josh Hartnett (who turned in a career-best performance). Sure, students attacked and even killed their peers in the film, but that's the damned story! That's "Othello!"\nIt's tragic that two socially maladjusted screw-ups felt it was necessary to enter Columbine High School, pipe-bombing and shooting their way through the halls and corridors that fateful day of April 20, 1999. My heart goes out to the injured and deceased, as well as their families and friends, but does it truly warrant the misappropriation of a tried and true adaptation of a timeless classic by one of the foremost creative powers ever? I think not.\nOr what about Martin Scorsese's oft-delayed period piece, "Gangs of New York?" Miramax (a studio once heralded for its brass and bravado) halted the film's release in wake of Sept. 11 last Christmas.\nOK, I understand the flick takes place in New York City, and that it will undoubtedly contain an onslaught of violence (hence the title), but it's New York City circa the 1800s. The delay is hardly relevant.\nBob and Harvey Weinstein, the two brothers behind the new Disney-fied Miramax, assumed viewers wouldn't want to see a bold, bloody gangland drama that chronicled the inception of the New York City we know and love today.\nWrong. If buzz counts for anything, this is going to be the best thing Scorsese's done since "Goodfellas" and will finally break his string of crap, i.e. "Kundun" and "Bringing Out the Dead."\nThe shelving of "Gangs" draws some extraneous questions and quibbles. If Scorsese's film necessitated a delay, then why were a bevy of war films released last year? War was a subject far closer to home than the New York draft riots of 1863, and yet "Behind Enemy Lines," "Black Hawk Down," "Hart's War," "We Were Soldiers" and "Windtalkers" marched into theaters one after the other.\nWell, the logic behind this is quite simple: studios smelled the nationalism that matriculated through our society for all of three months, and they realized there was money to be made. And what's up with digitally removing the World Trade Center from movies, i.e. "Spider-Man" and "Zoolander," and recalling cool promotional materials such as one-sheet posters featuring the Twin Towers (again "Spider-Man")?\nStudios kept on saying that they were looking to respect the memory of Sept. 11 by shelving films like "Gangs," and yet they're unwilling to let the memories live on in eternity within the pantheons of pop culture? \nSo, returning to "Phone Booth," the flick's about a slimy New York P.R. man by the name of Stu Shepard (portrayed by hot up-and-coming Irish actor Colin Farrell) who picks up a ringing pay phone receiver only to be told that if he hangs up, he'll be shot and killed. To prove that he's not full of piss and vinegar, the assailant targets Stu with a laser sight via a sniper rifle.\nA vast majority of the flick takes place in that booth, a novel idea if I ever heard one. The film was shot in 10 days on a budget of 2 million bucks (cheap by Hollywood standards) … pretty cool, huh? As directed by the much-maligned Joel Schumacher (yes, the same man who put nipples on the Batsuit), the film looks interesting. This despite the fact that Schumacher single-handedly ruined the "Batman" franchise.\nBut he's also the man behind "The Lost Boys," "Falling Down," "A Time to Kill" (the best John Grisham adaptation to date) and "Tigerland" (the small-scale Vietnam saga that marked Farrell's American debut), this should be evidence enough that the man produces more than just clunkers.\nSchumacher has been ardently attempting to avoid the delay; he was quoted on IMDB.com as saying that comparisons between the flick and the real-life events are "different cases" and that he hadn't even thought about negative parallels. Schumacher says, "I mean, there are many serial killers that haven't been caught. Should they not release 'Red Dragon?'" The man's got a point.\nFor those pundits out there who blame films such as "Phone Booth" or first-person-shooter video games for the recent tragedies in D.C., I've got this to say to you -- quit using the entertainment industry as a scapegoat for societal difficulties, assemble whatever stones you have (measly as they may be) and grab yourself a clue.\nAs the homicidal momma's boy Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) once told Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott character in "Scream" (another film blamed for random acts of violence), "Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative."\nHell, even the crazy kid's catching on.