I saw the new Michael Douglas flick Don’t Say a Word this past Wednesday Sept 21. With the exception of a distant skyline shot near the end, there were no shots of the World Trade Center, even though much of the movie takes place downtown.
I haven’t seen any mention of changes for this movie, so I assume there were none made. But I have to wonder, could changes have been made that quickly before releasing it to theaters? How long does it take to say, cut a few brief scenes and re-edit the soundtrack?
I doubt they had the time. You not only have to cut the scenes, but you also have to make copies of the film for the theaters. That takes longer than a week.
It was fairly easy to set a movie in downtown NYC and not show the WTC. Unless you were taking shots of the skyline, or setting the film in the towers, they probably wouldn’t show up.
Editing the WTC out of a film would be relatively quick and painless. Printing new copies would be what would take some extra time.
[side note]
I was watching a “Friends” rerun Yesterday. I never notice buffers, but there was one that just jumped out at me: a transition from the apartment to the coffee shop consisted of the camera focusing on the top of the towers and panning down to street level.
[/side note]