During Bastille Day festivities in Nice, France yesterday, a truck drove into a crowd of people celebrating the holiday, killing 84 and injuring upwards of 100. Just the day before the tragedy, the Idris Elba-helmed film Bastille Day was released in France. The film also stars Game of Thrones‘ Richard Madden, and per its IMDb page, it is about “a young con artist and former CIA agent embark on an anti-terrorist mission in France.” Its untimely release date, title, and subject matter has left the future of the film uncertain.
The film’s production company, Studiocanal, announced today that it was removing all of the marketing for Bastille Day from billboards and digital advertising. The distributor didn’t pull the film from theaters altogether, but it’s left the decisions to individual theaters whether or not to stop screenings or remove their marketing out of deference to the tragedy. There is no word yet on when the film will be released in the U.S., or if it will make it to movie theaters. Deadline reports, “A day-and-date VOD bow is planned, but it is not on the release schedule [for the distributor].”
This is not the first time Bastille Day‘s release has come into question in the wake of violent attacks. According to Variety, “Release of the movie had already been postponed following the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last November.”
Bastille Day also joins a list of films that have been delayed due to real-world tragedy. 9/11 saw a slew of films postponed due to subject matter involving bombs on planes or the World Trade Center, including Collateral Damage, Bad Company, and Big Trouble. Gangster Squad, which features of a scene of bad guys shooting up a movie theater, was postponed due to the Aurora, Colo. movie theater shootings in 2012. Whatever happens to Bastille Day, it’s hard to see its history not being forever tied to yesterday’s tragedy.
