Thanks to Alan for this. We had actually been discussing this possibility on the message board.... From Variety Sniper pic faces reality Fox's 'Phone Booth' eerily mirrors today's headlines By CLAUDE BRODESSER, CARL DIORIO What were the chances? Twentieth Century Fox marketing and distribution execs are surely asking themselves that question as the fatal sniper shootings pile up in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Studio's upcoming "Phone Booth" concerns a randomly selected man (Colin Farrell) pinned down in a phone booth under the crosshairs of a deranged sniper (Kiefer Sutherland). The $12 million thriller probably would have gone into theaters next month without a fuss had it not been for the terrifyingly random and bloody events of the past week. A spokeswoman for Fox said that it is "evaluating the situation." Meanwhile, a well-placed source at Fox tells Daily Variety that there have been preliminary conversations about moving the pic's Nov. 15 release date. Different cases Calls to "Phone Booth" producers Gil Netter and David Zucker on Wednesday and Thursday were not returned. In an interview with Daily Variety, helmer Joel Schumacher said he felt the ugly reality of the shootings and his fantasy thriller set in New York City were "such different cases" that he hadn't given any thought to a potentially negative effect. "I mean, there are many serial killers that haven't been caught," the director said. "Should they not release 'Red Dragon?' " Bad luck Due entirely to bad luck, "Phone Booth," penned by Larry Cohen, is the fourth picture in a year's time with a logline that collides with headlines. Last month Sony's Columbia Pictures finally released Luis Mandoki's thriller "Trapped" (based on the Greg Iles' novel "24 Hours"), but did so without any publicity to support its bow. "Trapped," in which a young girl is kidnapped for a ransom, was to have come out over the summer. That plan was shelved after it became clear that marketing was complicated by public sensitivities over a spate of high-profile abductions of young girls. Warner Bros. delayed the release of the terrorist themed actioner "Collateral Damage" to February 2002 because topliner Arnold Schwarzenegger played a firefighter out to avenge a terrorist killing of his wife -- something too fresh in the public consciousness to be released in the aftermath of 9/11. For similar reasons, Disney elected to hold back "Big Trouble" after the 9/11 attacks due to scenes that showed a bomb on board an airliner. Schumacher, who currently has been at work on a biopic of slain Irish muckraking journo Veronica Guerin, said that while Fox had not called him to discuss the marketing of "Phone Booth" in light of recent events, he would do "whatever anybody (at Fox) thinks is best" with respect to its release or publicity sked. For now, that means a wide release, shared, according to Nielsen EDI schedules, with another painfully-titled indie pic due for limited release in New York and L.A.: Neil Burger's "Interview with the Assassin."

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