Django Unchained premiere cancelled after Connecticut shooting

Hollywood studios have cancelled the premiere for a third major film release, Quentin Tarantino's ultra-violent Django Unchained, in the wake of Friday's gun massacre in Connecticut. Meanwhile, footage of a scene in the new Tom Cruise action movie, Jack Reacher, has reportedly been excised from all publicity for the Christopher McQuarrie film.

The premiere of Django Unchained was due to take place in Los Angeles on Tuesday but will be replaced by a screening for cast and crew. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, and in this time of national mourning we have decided to forgo our scheduled event," said production firm the Weinstein Company. Reports suggest that a scene in which Cruise's character fires a semi-automatic weapon has been removed from promotional spots for Jack Reacher ahead of its Christmas Day release in the US.

Studios Paramount and 20th Century Fox announced the cancellation of Saturday's US premieres for Jack Reacher and comedy Parental Guidance, starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, on Friday. Jack Reacher opens with a scene in which an expert sniper shoots dead five people in Pittsburgh, where its premiere was due to be held. Parental Guidance appears less controversial: it is about a married couple who are asked to care for their grandchildren.

Media attention in the wake of the killings of 20 young children and six adults at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut, has tended to focus on the issue of America's liberal gun control laws, but Hollywood is still nervous about potential criticism after the massacre in July at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado. Longtime gun control advocates such as Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore, the director of Bowling for Columbine, have been among the few Hollywood figures to speak out about the massacre at Sandy Hook by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who later turned the gun on himself. Both took to Twitter to call for new laws. "The short term solution? A law immediately banning semi-automatic weapons & mega-clips. Must have licence to own gun. Must pass mental exam," wrote Moore. He also encouraged people to watch his 2002 film about the Columbine high school massacre for free via an illicit YouTube link, though the upload was later removed by the site.

Samuel L Jackson, who plays a sinister house slave in Django Unchained, told the LA Times he was not in favour of new legislation in an interview published on Sunday. "I don't think it's about more gun control," he said. "I grew up in the south with guns everywhere and we never shot anyone. This [shooting] is about people who aren't taught the value of life." He added: "I don't think movies or video games have anything to do with it."

Tarantino himself seemed irritated when questioned on the issue of whether Hollywood contributes to gun violence at a junket for his new film on Saturday in New York. "I just think there's violence in the world. Tragedies happen," he said. "[Django] is a western. Give me a break."

Meanwhile, a comment purporting to be from Morgan Freeman arguing that gun control is not the solution to ridding America of Newtown-style massacres has been exposed as a hoax. A statement supposedly from the Oscar-winning actor blaming the media for giving publicity to killers spread like wildfire on Facebook, but the 75-year-old star of Million Dollar Baby and Driving Miss Daisy later said it had not come from him.