full size Christopher Nolan at the New York City Premiere of The Dark Knight Rises on July 16, 2012
Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty Images
Photo:
Christopher Nolan at the New York City Premiere of The Dark Knight Rises on July 16, 2012

The fallout from the devastating shooting during the July 20 midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, extends beyond the staggering death toll and number of injured. Warner Bros. has cancelled the movie’s Paris premiere; AMC and Regal Cinemas have revised their movie-going costume policies; and theaters have pulled the trailer for Gangster Squad.

Now The Hollywood Reporter reports that NBC and the NBC station group have stopped running The Dark Knight Rises ads, along with ABC, CBS, and ESPN, because they felt it wasn’t right to run them in conjunction with news of the tragedy. According to TMZ, Warner Bros. is revising the trailer to remove all gun imagery.

Meanwhile, the franchise’s director, Christopher Nolan, has released a heartfelt statement (via TMZ):

Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises, I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community. 

I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime.  

The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. 

Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.

It’s truly terrible that people — in this case, shooting suspect James Holmes, 24 — have the capacity for such astonishing violence, and that the violence casts a dark shadow on what should be an enjoyable diversion: going to see a movie.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, TMZ, TMZ

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