‘Django Unchained’ premiere canceled because of Newtown tragedy

In the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the Weinstein Co. has decided to cancel the Hollywood premiere of its movie “Django Unchained.”

The studio was set to roll out the red carpet for the ultra-violent Quentin Tarantino flick at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on Tuesday evening, followed by a glitzy after-party at SkyBar. Instead, the studio said it would hold a private screening for the crew and cast — including Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Kerry Washington — and their friends.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the tragedy in Newtown, CT, and in this time of national mourning we have decided to forgo our scheduled event,” a spokesperson for the Weinstein Co. said in a statement.

“Django Unchained” is the fourth Hollywood-related event to be postponed or canceled since Friday, when a gunman shot and killed 20 children and six adults at the school. Paramount Pictures pushed the Pittsburgh premiere for its Tom Cruise sniper flick “Jack Reacher” from Saturday to Wednesday, and a Monday evening Lincoln Center screening in New York that the actor was set to attend was canceled. Over the weekend, 20th Century Fox went ahead with screening its new Bette Midler-Billy Crystal family comedy “Parental Guidance” in L.A. but called off the press line beforehand and the party afterward.

All of the other big films set for release in the coming weeks, including “Les Miserables,” “This is 40” and “The Guilt Trip,” held their premieres last week. The next big studio release that will likely have a splashy debut is “Gangster Squad,” the Warner Bros. mob drama co-starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling out Jan. 11. That film had its release date pushed after the July shooting during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Colorado, because the studio needed time to excise a scene from the movie in which mobsters fire guns at people seated in a cinema.

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