Ryan Gosling Applauds ‘Gangster Squad’ Director For Cutting Theater Shooting Scene

Actor Ryan Gosling has applauded the director of his newest film Gangster Squad for cutting out the climactic shooting scene that took place inside a packed theater.

The stylish noir contained a scene (shown in early trailers) during which characters standing behind a film screen at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre open fire on the audience with automatic sub-machine guns.

After the theater shooting massacre in Aurora, Colorado, the Gangster Squad trailer was pulled everywhere and the film headed into re-shoots in order to re-locate the scene, which was considered to be one of the film’s climaxes.

Ryan Gosling, the star of Gangster Squad, has applauded director Ruben Fleischer for pushing back the release date, re-shooting, and dropping the theater shooting scene altogether out of respect for the victims.

During a Good Morning America appearance on January 11, Gosling said: “I was really proud of him because it really was the best sequence in the movie, without question. The day it [the massacre] happened he wouldn’t even dream of keeping it in.”

Producers immediately pulled the trailer that showcases the theater shooting scene, which was originally attached to showings of The Dark Knight Rises. MSN notes the irony of the Aurora shooting having taken place at a showing of that film.

Here’s the original trailer for Gangster Squad, which shows a snippet of the theater shooting scene that was pulled from the final version of the film. Do you agree with Ryan Gosling that the director was right to pull the scene from the film?

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