Parkland parent gets film studio to move release date of teen slasher film
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, uses Twitter to get Universal Pictures to move the release date of ‘Happy Death Day 2U’ from Valentine’s Day, the one-year mark since the massacre.
There was a time-honored tradition of pegging the creation, and release, of teen slasher movies to a holiday or event.
In the early 1980s — a boom time for these quickly made and profitable horror flicks — there was “Prom Night,” New Year’s Evil,” “My Bloody Valentine,” “Silent Night, Deadly Night,” and, of course, the “Halloween” sequels.
But the pending release of a new Valentine’s Day-themed horror flick, set for release on Feb. 14 by Universal Pictures, has at least one Parkland parent upset.
Upset enough, that Fred Guttenberg, who lost his 14year-old daughter Jaime in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre last Valentine’s Day, took to Twitter on Tuesday night to plead with Universal to move the release date of “Happy Death Day 2U” from its original planned Feb. 14 opening.
“My daughter and 16 others were killed on February 14th. Universal Studios is releasing a movie called Happy Death Day 2 U? I get the pin on Valentine’s Day,” Guttenberg tweeted. “For me it will always be the day my daughter was murdered. Please reconsider this.”
Guttenberg directed his plea to the movie’s producer, Jason Blum, who is the founder of Blumhouse Productions. He
also vowed to work alongside Blum to help “make your movie successful” if the release date could be changed.
Many of Guttenberg’s 150,000 followers agreed, responding in kind.
“Couldn’t it be a play on a Birthday, which could then be any other [godd--n] day? For God sakes, it’s the 1st anniversary. Fred, my best to you every day,” read one — perhaps recalling the 1981 slasher flick, “Happy Birthday to Me.”
Another took a more sobering tone given today’s many shootings: “Fred I understand that day is probably hard, but if Studios in America had to consider every school shooting before releasing their movies we’d probably never get movies.”
Apparently, Guttenberg’s request wasn’t in vain.
On Wednesday, he tweeted that Universal honored his request.
“Very happy to announce that I just got off the phone with executives at Universal Studios. They will be moving the release date of the movie off of February 14th and they will also be taking steps to address the local needs of the Parkland community. This was a great outcome,” Guttenberg posted.
A spokesman for the film studio told Yahoo Entertainment: “When Universal Pictures became aware last week that the one-year anniversary of the tragic events in Parkland, Florida, fell on the ‘Happy Death Day 2U’ release date, the studio spoke with victim advocates and immediately began the process of changing the release date of the film.”
The movie will now open on Feb. 13 in North American theaters.
But not in the immediate Parkland vicinity.
“Outdoor, digital and in-theatre marketing for the film will be suspended in that market,” the rep told Yahoo Entertainment. “The studio understands the importance of memorializing the February 14 date as an opportunity to continue to allow the Parkland community to heal.”
“Happy Death Day 2U” is a sequel to director Christopher Landon’s 2017 movie, “Happy Death Day to U,” a “time-loop” thriller that made $125 million worldwide on a budget of nearly $5 million. The sequel’s story picks up two years after the events in the first film.
Guttenberg recently lashed out against Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri for appearing on separate talk-show programs on NRA TV. Judd and Gualtieri are members of the commission that put together a scathing, 458-page report on the Parkland shootings.