Is it a good time for movies about the bird flu? Nova Cinema thinks so…

There were numerous cases in the United States when movie premieres were postponed due to “bad timing”. Political thrillers and “disaster movies” coincided with 9/11 and other such events and the filmmakers decided that the audiences were not ready or in the mood for their movie…

The “swine” flu is spreading. A young girl died in Austria today, being the first victim in this country. The Czech Republic has one confirmed victim (see three posts below). And yet people in charge of programming in Nova Cinema feel it might be a good time for a movie about bird flu pandemic. It is like airing Dante’s Peak or Volcano one day after a major eruption.

In the Czech Republic it is quite common to make last-minute changes to programming. For example, if a well-known actor dies, the Czech Television often replaces the planned primetime movie with one where the deceased had a leading role. TV Nova also makes these changes occasionally.

Yes, it is life and it is fiction but the events surrounding the bird flu and the swine flu are way too “fresh” to be looked at from the “just TV fiction” perspective… And yes, all TV sets do have their remotes… and the best way to show disappointment is to change the channel… but still, there are some professional codes of conduct that regulate broadcasting (sometimes people do not even know the rules exist).

United 93 and World Trade Center premiered in 2006, i.e. five years after 9/11, giving the world (especially the United States) some time to recover. There are 2,993 reasons why nobody made a movie about the events in 2002.