These Films Have Very, Very Bad Timing

In the history of films with bad timing, the movie Deep Water easily makes the top five. Deep Water, produced by Arclight Films, has been delayed due to its unfortunate resemblance to the recent missing Malaysian flight. Although Australian-made Deep Water was already in production (meaning that it couldn't have consciously copied recent events), it centers on a flight that crashes in the ocean on its way to China, leaving a few survivors to fend off sharks. The managing director stated that the film was put on hold "out of sensitivity to the Malaysia flight situation," and its resemblance to the disappearance of flight MH370 is truly creepy, so he probably made the right call.

Deep Water is not the first film to have truly horrible timing, though. There is a long tradition of satires that predict disasters, movies with eerily similar scenes to real life, and movies that picked the wrong year to air.

Wag The Dog (1997)

This political drama came out just before that presidential sex scandal involving a possible First Man candidate and someone whose name rhymes with Pawnica Schmoowinsky. Interestingly enough, Wag the Dog accurately predicted the events directly surrounding Bill's indiscretion, from the affair to the quick military action afterward. It was so accurate that the title adorned numerous news articles on the subject, perhaps implying that a certain president had borrowed some ideas from the script.

The China Syndrome (1979)

The media had a field day after The China Syndrome accurately predicted the events of the Three Mile Island disaster. Although nuclear power advocates originally blamed the film for being too alarmist, they were silenced two weeks after its release, when Three Mile Island reactor melted down. Although the disaster probably helped the sales of The China Syndrome, the timing of the film just before a major national tragedy was still unfortunate.

O (2001)

Even beyond the world of star-studded Shakespeare remakes, O is notorious. This Josh Hartnett-starring Othello was set in an all-white Southern school, and depicted a number of shooting deaths (instead of the traditional Shakespearean duel). Unfortunately, the film was scheduled to release in 1999, and after the Columbine massacre shook the nation, Miramax vowed to shelve the film forever. The film was released two years later with Lionsgate

Spiderman (2002)

Although Spiderman itself was a fairly innocuous film, one of its teaser trailers was quickly scrapped after 9/11. The teaser, which was a stand-alone ad for the much-anticipated movie, depicts Spiderman catching a helicopter in a web strung between the Twin Towers. The teaser was shot long before 9/11, but was quickly pulled after the attacks because of its depiction of the Twin Towers. Sony also removed the original Spiderman poster, which depicted reflections of the Twin Towers in Spiderman's eyes. The banned trailer still circulates on Youtube, so you can see why the studio felt it was best to leave this eerie ad on the cutting room floor.