Movie Cricket

It's not uncommon for a movie studio to delay or alter a film before release because of tragic news events — just think of the films, like "Zoolander," that removed images of the World Trade Center just after 9/11.

But what happens when a tragic event happens — as did Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, as a gunman shot dozens of people, killing 13 — the day before a movie is set to be released that has an eerily similar scene?

SPOILER ALERT!

In "The Men Who Stare at Goats," opening today nationwide, there is a scene where a soldier in a secret unit is dosed with LSD — and then walks naked through the base's parade ground, shooting randomly.

In the scene, which is darkly comic in context, nobody is killed until the gunman shoots himself in the head. But the parallels to Thursday's tragedy at Fort Hood will make it impossible to laugh at that part of the movie.

Had "The Men Who Stare at Goats" been released next week, the distributor, Overture Films, might have rushed to edit out the scene and strike new copies for theaters. But the prints were already shipped, sitting in projection booths across America waiting to be threaded up for today's first matinees.

Overture might opt to cut the scene and send new prints later in the film's run (though that's an expensive proposition). Either way, a pretty funny movie, through a horrific coincidence of timing, just got a lot less funny.