Film Studios, TV Networks Plan More Delays, Changes

After a meeting that included actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and top studio executives, Warner Bros. Pictures announced Wednesday that it will postpone indefinitely the Oct. 5 release of its terrorism-themed action-thriller “Collateral Damage.”

In the film, Schwarzenegger plays a firefighter whose wife and young son perish when terrorists from Colombia blow up a Los Angeles skyscraper. The studio also announced that, effective immediately, it is pulling all advertising for the movie. The studio did not say how much the abrupt scuttling of the massive marketing campaign will cost.

The producers said this week’s real-life terrorist attacks made it inappropriate to release the movie at this time of national grief.

“It’s just too painful for people,” said David Foster, a producer on the project. “This picture is, like, so on the money it’s unbelievable.”

Steven Reuther, chairman of Bel-Air Entertainment, which produced the movie, noted: “We recognized that what this nation and what everyone needs to be doing now is dealing with our loss and our grief.”

Television executives were grappling with the same kinds of creative decisions in the wake of the attack. At CBS, network executives said a new fall show, “The Agency,” would have a different opening episode.

The show, which looks at the inner workings of the CIA, begins with the lead actor trying to recruit a Middle Eastern diplomat who has information about an impending terrorist bombing in London. CBS Television President Leslie Moonves said that the terrorists do not succeed but that the network will move quickly to change the promos.

NBC announced that all prime-time series scheduled to premiere Monday, which coincides with the start of the new television season, will be postponed at least a week, and longer if events warrant.

The move by Warner Bros. follows abrupt cancellations of movies by other studios in the wake of the attacks. Disney announced Tuesday that it was postponing indefinitely the release of the Tim Allen comedy “Big Trouble,” which has as a central plot point a nuclear device hidden in a suitcase being taken on board an airliner. The film was set for release Sept. 21.

Sony Pictures Entertainment yanked the ads for “Spider-Man,” its 2002 comic-book-themed action-adventure film, because they depict images of the now-nonexistent World Trade Center towers. Changes are also in the works for the studio’s big-budget sequel “Men in Black 2.” A Sony spokesman said Wednesday that there is a scene in the sequel “set against the backdrop of the World Trade Center, and in light of Tuesday’s tragedy we are in the process of looking for alternatives.”

In the case of “Collateral Damage,” producers noted that the film has been in development for almost six years. As originally conceived, the terrorists were to be Arabs.

Foster noted that when director Andrew Davis came on board, he wanted the terrorists changed to Colombian rebels.

“He felt there were too many pictures showing Arab terrorists,” Foster recalled.

Meanwhile, the major broadcast networks--which delayed the start of the television season a year ago because of the Olympic Games--were also wrestling with when life in the U.S. will have returned to a semblance of normalcy, allowing them to launch their prime-time lineups. The scheduling chess game that programmers play has been thrown into chaos by this week’s acts of terrorism, which preempted prime-time and late-night entertainment programming on broadcast networks for the second consecutive Wednesday.

Although network executives were understandably reluctant to focus on what appears to be a trifle in the face of tragedy, the practical concern is that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent developing new programs.

Discussions were still underway Wednesday, meanwhile, as to whether it would be appropriate to reschedule the Emmy Awards ceremony--which was to have been held Sunday--for a week later.

“We’re making decisions hour by hour, day by day, here,” CBS spokesman Chris Ender said. The network had planned a giant roll-out of the new season next week, using its broadcast of the Emmy Awards as a springboard.

At press time, some of the networks intended to start airing entertainment programs tonight, while making last-minute changes to fill their lineups with situation comedies and comedic films that, as Fox spokesman Scott Grogin put it, “families can watch together and that won’t make people uncomfortable.”

Fox, for example, has scheduled the movies “Nine Months,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “The Nutty Professor” to run over the next few days--pulling the feature film version of “The X-Files,” which includes a terrorist explosion in the opening sequence, and the explosion-filled science-fiction film “Independence Day.” The network is planning a special edition of “America’s Most Wanted”--focusing on the terrorist attacks--on Saturday.

The WB issued a statement saying that after “much deliberation,” the network is proceeding with plans to introduce its new Friday night sitcom lineup this week. Citing the youthful demographic appeal of the network and its shows, WB spokesman Paul McGuire said network officials decided that their target audience of teens and young adults was best served with an alternative to the “diet of this horror” that has been playing out across the dial since early Tuesday. (The WB is partly owned by Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times.)

UPN, meanwhile, went ahead Wednesday with regularly scheduled programmingwhile tweaking its movie schedule. For instance, a planned Sept. 28 airing of the movie “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory” was replaced by the film “Set It Off.”

Jamie Kellner, chairman and chief executive of TBS Inc., said his network would “continue to make adjustments to the schedule based on content.”

He noted that a youth-oriented witchcraft-themed film, “The Craft,” is being replaced with the more family friendly “7th Heaven” and “Gilmore Girls.”

Premieres of network programming also remain in flux because of the many events--including major league baseball playoffs--that could be affected by the aftermath of Tuesday’s attacks.

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Times staff writers Brian Lowry, Paul Brownfield, Meg James and Corie Brown also contributed to this story.