Awkward phrasing on the title but here’s my question: reviews of the new movie Green Room, which opened this weekend, have pointed out that a passing mention of Prince by one of the characters has been greeted with applause by audiences.
Can you think of other similar examples of this? I remember two. In Shallow Hal, one of the characters mentions a “private Beatles reunion with Eric Clapton filling in for John.” The joke was somewhat awkward because George Harrison had died just weeks before the movie’s release.
There was also a reference to Maya Angelou in 22 Jump Street; she died just days before that movie came out.
The only other similar thing I can recall was reading that the producers of Austin Powers had to do some last-minute editing to remove a reference to Princess Diana shortly after her untimely demise.
Dr. Strangelove was similar. In a scene on the bomber, Maj. Kong is reading the contents of the survival kit and ends with “a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas will all that stuff.” They dubbed in “Vegas” over “Dallas” because of the Kennedy assassination.
This has happened with “The Simpsons” at least a few times. In one episode, a radiocative emission from the nuclear power plant wipes out a farmer’s corn crop who says, “Oh no, now Paul Newman’s going to break my legs!” Originally, Orville Redenbacher was going to break the farmer’s legs but he died during production so Newman was substituted. There was also the time Homer stole an Oscar that originally belonged to Haing S. Ngor but, after he was murdered, it was changed to Don Ameche.
Not quite what you’re looking for, Pope Paul VI died shortly after the release of the movie Foul Play. He wasn’t reference by his actual name, a Pope impersonator was used and given a fake name. The untimely death of the actual Pope (followed soon after by another one) killed the movie at the theaters. Stuff like this is the reason so many movie producers are bald.
Early posters, and the first trailer, for Spider-Man contained images of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. By the time the film was released, 9/11 had occurred. The producers removed the footage from the final cut.
Several New York set productions had similar things happen at the time. I think they even altered some Friends reruns to remove some stock shots of the towers.
Fay Wray, the original Ann Darrow from the 1933 King Kong died when Peter Jackson was ramping up production for his 2005 remake. He REALLY wanted to give her a cameo in the film, but they had to be content with simply giving her a mention.
He did, however, have Rick Baker play one of the biplane pilots. Baker was the guy who designed the Kong face masks and bodysuit, and who played Kong in the 1976 version. Having him play a biplane pilot was a sort of homage itself to the way producers/directors of the original 1933 version Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack said “We should kill the sonovabitch ourselves”, and played the biplane pilot and gunner.
Austin Powers did not do this, but Princess Diana died 2 months after it came out. In fact, in the UK it came out a week after her death.
In the movie, Dr. Evil suggests they make it look like Diana or Charles is having an affair and that they are divorcing. This, number 2 tells him, has already occurred.
I never saw the movie before he death, so it has always been slightly odd.
Yeah, I misremembered the specifics but I remember there being talk of an awkward reference to Princess Di in the movie. I must’ve been reading about the UK release.
Somewhat in the same vein is SpaceCamp, which (according to the IMDB), was supposed to be released in early 1986. The Challenger explosion in January caused the producers to delay the release by several months. I’ve never seen it, but apparently the movie contains a booster-rocket malfunction on a space shuttle!
The musical Avenue Q has Gary Coleman as a character, and there were shows running when the real Gary Coleman died. They dedicated some shows to Gary Coleman, but have continued with the character.
Yeah, I misremembered the specifics but I remember there being talk of an awkward reference to Princess Di in the movie. I must’ve been reading about the UK release./QUOTE]
And that fact that it was not a big hit until VHS and by the time we saw it 6 months later on VHS, she was dead.
There was another , larger change in Dr. Strangelove. The film was supposed to end with a pie fight in the War Room, and after president Muffly (played by Peter Sellers) gets hit, Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) remarks “Gentlemen, our President has been struck down in his prime!”
They were editing this scebe, ironically, on Nev. 23, 1963. Of course, it had to go. I think that Kubriock would have axed it even if Kennedy had not been shot – it’s too out-of-synch with the rest of the film, but the events made it imperative that it go.
Billy Elliott has one number, “Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher,” with the lyrics
“Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher
We all celebrate today
'Cause it’s one day closer to your death.”
When Thatcher died, the show was still running. The cast asked the audience whether they should perform the song. The audience voted to keep it.
In another example, Action Comics#309 had a story where Superman had to protect his secret identity, so he asked JFK to play Clark Kent. It hit the newsstands the week after JFK died. There was some outrage, but the issue had been put together months before, and it was already being shipped when the assassination happened. Coupled with the fact that it portrayed JFK in a good light (“If I can’t trust the President of the United States, who can I trust?”), the negative reaction died away.
Spiderman just made a post in another thread referencing Joey Coyle who was the basis for the movie Money for Nothing. Coyle was played by John Cusack. Coyle died one month before the movie was released.
Another change due to the Challenger explosion from IMDB regarding The Cosby Show in which Danny Kaye played a dentist –
The original script gave Danny Kaye the line “This is the tooth shuttle, and I need an astronaut!” as he propelled his chair up and down. The episode’s original air date was less than one week after the disaster aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, so Kaye overdubbed that line with “This is the tooth ship, and I need a pilot!”
I haven’t seen it either, but a lot of people thought it was disrespectful to put out a movie where a bunch of teenagers at (you guessed it) space camp accidentally launch themselves into space so soon after the Challenger disaster, until it was explained to them that the movie would have wrapped long before the disaster happened.
The Spice Girls movie had to have the script revised 3 times, to remove references to Mother Teresa, Gianni Versace, and Princess Diana, all of whom died during the movie’s production, and leaving them in would, because of their nature, have been inappropriate.
