Vidal’s literary legacy includes a series of historical novels – “Burr,” “1876,” “Lincoln” and “The Golden Age” among them – as well as the campy transsexual comedy “Myra Breckinridge”.

He started writing as a 19-year-old soldier stationed in Alaska, basing “Williwaw” on his World War Two experiences. His third book, “The City and the Pillar,” created a sensation in 1948 because it was one of the first open portrayals of a homosexual main character.

Confirming his death, his official website posted a memoriam with two pictures of Vidal, one as a young military warrant officer during World War Two and another as the iconoclastic writer he would become.

He referred to himself as a “gentleman bitch” and was as egotistical and caustic as he was elegant and brilliant.

In addition to rubbing shoulders with the great writers of his time, he banged heads with many of them. Vidal considered Ernest Hemingway a joke and compared Truman Capote to a “filthy animal that has found its way into the house”.

His most famous literary enemies were conservative pundit William F. Buckley Jr. and writer Norman Mailer, who Vidal once likened to cult killer Charles Manson.

Mailer head-butted Vidal before a television appearance and on another occasion knocked him to the ground.

Vidal and Buckley took their feud to live national television while serving as commentators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Vidal accused Buckley of being a “pro-crypto-Nazi” while Buckley called Vidal a “queer” and threatened to punch him.

Vidal seemed to make no effort to curb his abundant ego.

In a 2008 interview with Esquire magazine Vidal said people always seemed impressed that he had met so many famous people, such as Jacqueline Kennedy and William Burroughs.

“People always put that sentence the wrong way around,” he said. “I mean, why not put it the true way – that these people got to meet me, and wanted to?”

NEPHEW OF SENATOR

Eugene Luther Vidal Jr. was born on October 3, 1925 in West Point, New York, and eventually took his mother’s surname as his first name. He grew up in Washington, D.C., where his grandfather, Democratic U.S. Sen. Thomas Gore of Oklahoma, had a strong influence on the boy.

The young Vidal developed an interest in politics as he read to the blind senator and led him about town. A distant cousin is former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

He went to exclusive private secondary schools but did not attend college.

After his parents divorced, Vidal’s mother married Hugh Auchincloss, who later also became the stepfather of Jacqueline Kennedy. That connection gave Vidal access to the Kennedy White House before a falling out with the family.

After early success, his literary career stalled – perhaps because of the controversy of “The City and the Pillar” – and he concentrated on television and movie scripts.

Vidal got back on track in the 1960s with “Julian,” about a Roman emperor; “Washington, D.C.,” the tale of a political family; and “Myra Breckenridge.”

Bigger success followed with recreations of historical U.S. figures – such as Aaron Burr and Abraham Lincoln – that analyze where Vidal thought the United States fell from grace.

Vidal also was known for his sharp essays on society, sex, literature and politics. He was fervent about politics and what he considered to be the death of “the American Empire”.

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return,” he once said.

In 1960 Vidal ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in New York and in 1982 failed in a bid for a California Senate seat.

He once described the United States as “the land of the dull and the home of the literal” and starting in the 1960s lived much of the time in a seaside Italian villa. He moved back permanently in 2003, shortly before Howard Austen, his companion of more than 50 years, died of cancer.

(Additional reporting by Bob Tourtellotte, Cynthia Johnston and Elaine Lies; Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Anthony Boadle and Angus MacSwan)

As an artist, he is an eclectic talent who draws, paints, sculpts and does conceptual art, photography, cultural criticism and architecture.

Now, a film documentary, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” sheds light on the man behind the dissident artist, with a goal that U.S. and other audiences might learn more about Chinese culture and, perhaps, about themselves.

Ai, 54, disappeared in his country in April 2011, and after an outcry by art lovers, free speech activists and politicians, he was found to have been jailed by Chinese officials.

He was released after 81 days in detention, and this month, a Chinese court upheld a $2.4 million tax evasion fine against him that is largely considered a way to muzzle his voice.

Those are the headlines, but who is the man?

“For me, that was one of the driving questions. Who is this guy?,” Alison Klayman, the filmmaker of “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” now playing in U.S. theaters, told Reuters.

“I really feel like what I found, and what is reflected in ‘Never Sorry,’ is someone who is…an incredibly effective communicator, a political organizer, a social commentator. But above all, he is an artist, and an artist who is motivated by the desire to push his country forward,” Klayman said.

Klayman first met Ai while living in China and working for National Public Radio, PBS show “Frontline” and other US media outlets. She had been asked to tape an interview with Ai following his role as artistic consultant for the 2008 Beijing Olympic stadium, dubbed the Bird’s Nest for its striking design.

While Ai’s work on the Bird’s Nest vaulted him to worldwide fame, he was already well-known in China for his art, design, activism and family. His father is Chinese poet Ai Qing, and after spending the 1980s studying in the United States, Ai Weiwei returned to China to be with his dad, who died in 1996.

In the 1990s, Ai Weiwei published a series of underground books about young and emerging artists who were bucking convention. In the 2000s, he challenged official China’s version of life behind the Great Wall with, among other work, paintings that showed a hand giving the middle finger to images symbolizing Chinese authority such as Tiananmen Square.

In 2007, he denounced the Bird’s Nest and the Beijing Olympics as political propaganda, and in 2008, Ai began work to expose the names of more than 5,000 children killed in a massive earthquake — names the government did not want disclosed.

SPEECH IS FREE

“The question: ‘Why is he not in jail?’ was one that I asked pretty much all of my interviewees, certainly all the ones that were done before his (2011) detention,” Klayman said. “Actually, it’s something that I asked Weiwei within the first week or two of us filming together…And his response was, ‘I don’t know…It’s not up to me whether I’m in jail or not.’”

Ai’s answer is simple and complex at the same time because it requires understanding societal shifts in modern China, and his life and work seem a fitting vehicle to explore the country’s changing cultural landscape.

What emerges in “Never Sorry” is a portrait of a man who deeply loves his country and fellow citizens, yet also wants to expose his government’s suppression of individual rights.

Following his work on the Bird’s Nest, Ai exploded onto the international art scene, but it was his use of Twitter that gave his voice even wider reach around the globe and earned the wrath of Chinese officials who’d already shut down his personal blog.

“Weiwei was talking about all of the exciting possibilities of the Internet well before the Arab Spring and Wikileaks and all these things in current affairs,” said Klayman.

Yet, as much as “Never Sorry” paints a portrait of an artist and sheds some light on Chinese life, Klayman also hopes it challenges western audiences to express themselves without fear of retribution, whether by family, friends or governments.

“It really makes people inspired to think, ‘What can I do in my world, and where do I need to put it out there, put it on the line, risk something to make my world a better place,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Alicia Avila; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, saw its big-budget film take in a near record $30.6 million in midnight screenings on Friday, but ticket sales were overshadowed by the shooting. As news spread through the day, the film’s director, Christopher Nolan, expressed his “profound sorrow” at the rampage that took the lives of 12 people and injured 58 more.

While the studio did not cancel any of the movie’s planned screenings, it did stop many promotions and some TV networks stopped running advertisements for the movie.

Theater owners and police from New York to Los Angeles beefed up security to assure people that the movies – a place to escape troubles and be entertained – were still safe.

The head of Cinemark Holdings, owner of the Century 16 movie theater where the shooting occurred in Aurora, Colorado, went on TV to stress the safety of movie going. Cinemark CEO Tim Warner called the shooting “a one-off tragedy.”

“We play to 250 to 255 million people a year with very little incidents. As so, the movie theaters are a very safe and secure environment,” Warner said on CNBC.

“The Dark Knight Rises,” based on the exploits of crime-fighting superhero Batman, is one of this year’s major movie releases. Some box-office watchers had believed its U.S. and Canadian ticket sales could reach as high as $198 million over this debut weekend, just shy of the $207 million opening set by “The Avengers” earlier this year. The movie cost Warner Bros. $250 million to produce and tens of millions more to market.

But at a midnight premiere in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, a gunman wearing a gas mask and a bulletproof vest hurled a gas canister inside the theater and opened fire on moviegoers.

“The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me,” Nolan said in his statement. “Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.”

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Hollywood box-office watchers said it was too soon to know exactly how ticket sales would be affected by the event because the industry had never faced a situation like this one.

“It’s too early to tell. This is a tragic and unprecedented event,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office watcher for Hollywood.com Box Office.

Others said the killings might do little to dampen turnout for “Dark Knight Rises,” the finale to a popular Batman saga.

“As horrible as this was, it is likely to affect ‘The Dark’ at the edges and won’t take away that many viewers,” said Tony Wible, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott, who follows entertainment companies and theater chains. “There are only a few people who won’t come out to see a movie because of this.”

Some industry experts, including former Columbia Pictures marketing head Peter Sealey, said the studio should scale back its promotion of the film, and with strong advance word-of-mouth publicity, it might not even need to advertise in order to bring in big numbers at the box office.

“Warner Brothers should show sensitivity and pull the ads for a week, certainly in Denver, and maybe around the country,” said former Columbia Pictures marketing head Peter Sealey.

Phil Contrino, editor of Boxoffice.com, said the impact could go beyond just “The Dark Knight Rises” to all films in theaters if people stay away, and it could extend well into the future if the event lingers in people’s minds.

Indeed, Hollywood and the movie industry have faced real-life horrors before and shown sensitivity. On Friday, Warner Bros. pulled a promotion for a mob film “Gangster Squad” from theaters, canceled a “Dark Knight” premiere in Paris and said it would not post any more box-office figures until the weekend passed.

“Warner Bros. and the filmmakers are deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time,” the company said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Warner pulled video ads for 9/11 film “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” around Ground Zero in New York after residents there complained it was insensitive.

In the wake of those attacks back in 2001, promotional posters for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s “Spider-Man” were changed to remove images of the World Trade Center towers.

Back in 1991 at the premieres of gangland crime drama “Boyz n The Hood,” one man was killed and many injured when random violence erupted in several movie theaters across the United States, forcing some venues to cancel screenings.

While much of Hollywood remained quiet in public, some stars, including former California governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres, “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest and film director Kevin Smith took to Twitter to express shock, sorrow and in some cases, anger.

“A mad man has shattered lives forever in Colorado. To everyone who helped folks get to safety in that theatre THANK YOU for your bravery … Hearts and Prayers to all affected by the craziness in Colorado,” Whoopi Goldberg tweeted.

VIOLENCE IN MEDIA

In the days and weeks to follow, the shooting will likely renew calls for ways to reduce violence in movies and people will point to Hollywood as being, in some ways, responsible for Friday’s deadly shooting spree.

Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills media psychiatrist who specializes in the impact of media on people, thought it was likely no coincidence that the suspected gunman, 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes, picked the “Batman” movie with its violent tale of good versus evil to carry out the deadly shooting.

“It’s tragic, but we’re going to find out that he has been exposed to significant amounts of media violence in his past,” she speculated.

The National Association of Theatre Owners, a trade industry group representing movie theater owners, said its member companies were “working closely with local law enforcement agencies and reviewing security procedures.”

AMC Theaters, one of the largest chains in the United States, said it would not allow guests to wear face-covering masks or take fake weapons inside its buildings.

Carmike Cinemas, the nation’s fourth-largest theater chain, said it was using uniformed “law enforcement officers and plainclothes agents” at its 237 theaters.

Shares of movie theater chains dropped on Friday after the killings. Cinemark Holdings, declined 4.6 percent to close at $23.15 on the New York Stock Exchange. Regal Entertainment Group shares fell 4.4 percent to close at $13.54 on Nasdaq. Shares of Carmike slipped 2.3 percent to $14.48, also on Nasdaq.

Shares of Time Warner Inc, the media conglomerate that owns the Warner Bros. studio, which produced “Dark Knight Rises,” dropped 28 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $38.86 on the NYSE.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte, Ronald Grover, Lisa Richwine and Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Peter Cooney)

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, saw its
big-budget film take in a near record $30.6 million in midnight
screenings on Friday, but ticket sales were overshadowed by the
shooting. As news spread through the day, the film’s director,
Christopher Nolan, expressed his “profound sorrow” at the
rampage that took the lives of 12 people and injured 58 more.

While the studio did not cancel any of the movie’s planned
screenings, it did stop many promotions and some TV networks
stopped running advertisements for the movie.

Theater owners and police from New York to Los Angeles
beefed up security to assure people that the movies – a place to
escape troubles and be entertained – were still safe.

The head of Cinemark Holdings, owner of the Century
16 movie theater where the shooting occurred in Aurora,
Colorado, went on TV to stress the safety of moviegoing.
Cinemark CEO Tim Warner called the shooting “a one-off tragedy.”

“We play to 250 to 255 million people a year with very
little incidents. As so, the movie theaters are a very safe and
secure environment,” Warner said on CNBC.

“The Dark Knight Rises,” based on the exploits of
crime-fighting superhero Batman, is one of this year’s major
movie releases. Some box-office watchers had believed its U.S.
and Canadian ticket sales could reach as high as $198 million
over this debut weekend, just shy of the $207 million opening
set by “The Avengers” earlier this year. The movie cost Warner
Bros. $250 million to produce and tens of millions more to
market.

But at a midnight premiere in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, a
gunman wearing a gas mask and a bulletproof vest hurled a gas
canister inside the theater and opened fire on moviegoers.

“The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone
would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an
unbearably savage way is devastating to me,” Nolan said in his
statement. “Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately
express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling
crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.”

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Hollywood box-office watchers said it was too soon to know
exactly how ticket sales would be affected by the event because
the industry had never faced a situation like this one.

“It’s too early to tell. This is a tragic and unprecedented
event,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office watcher for
Hollywood.com Box Office.

Others said the killings might do little to dampen turnout
for “Dark Knight Rises,” the finale to a popular Batman saga.

“As horrible as this was, it is likely to affect ‘The Dark’
at the edges and won’t take away that many viewers,” said Tony
Wible, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott, who follows
entertainment companies and theater chains. “There are only a
few people who won’t come out to see a movie because of this.”

Some industry experts, including former Columbia Pictures
marketing head Peter Sealey, said the studio should scale back
its promotion of the film, and with strong advance word-of-mouth
publicity, it might not even need to advertise in order to bring
in big numbers at the box office.

“Warner Brothers should show sensitivity and pull the ads
for a week, certainly in Denver, and maybe around the country,”
said former Columbia Pictures marketing head Peter Sealey.

Phil Contrino, editor of Boxoffice.com, said the impact
could go beyond just “The Dark Knight Rises” to all films in
theaters if people stay away, and it could extend well into the
future if the event lingers in people’s minds.

Indeed, Hollywood and the movie industry have faced
real-life horrors before and shown sensitivity. On Friday,
Warner Bros. pulled a promotion for a mob film “Gangster Squad”
from theaters, canceled a “Dark Knight” premiere in Paris and
said it would not post any more box-office figures until the
weekend passed.

“Warner Bros. and the filmmakers are deeply saddened to
learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere
sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this
tragic time,” the company said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Warner pulled video ads for 9/11 film
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” around Ground Zero in New
York after residents there complained it was insensitive.

In the wake of those attacks back in 2001, promotional
posters for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s “Spider-Man” were
changed to remove images of the World Trade Center towers.

Back in 1991 at the premieres of gangland crime drama “Boyz
n The Hood,” one man was killed and many injured when random
violence erupted in several movie theaters across the United
States, forcing some venues to cancel screenings.

While much of Hollywood remained quiet in public, some
stars, including former California governor and actor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres, “American Idol” host
Ryan Seacrest and film director Kevin Smith took to Twitter to
express shock, sorrow and in some cases, anger.

“A mad man has shattered lives forever in Colorado. To
everyone who helped folks get to safety in that theatre THANK
YOU for your bravery … Hearts and Prayers to all affected by
the craziness in Colorado,” Whoopi Goldberg tweeted.

VIOLENCE IN MEDIA

In the days and weeks to follow, the shooting will likely
renew calls for ways to reduce violence in movies and people
will point to Hollywood as being, in some ways, responsible for
Friday’s deadly shooting spree.

Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills media psychiatrist who
specializes in the impact of media on people, thought it was
likely no coincidence that the suspected gunman, 24-year-old
James Eagan Holmes, picked the “Batman” movie with its violent
tale of good versus evil to carry out the deadly shooting.

“It’s tragic, but we’re going to find out that he has been
exposed to significant amounts of media violence in his past,”
she speculated.

The National Association of Theatre Owners, a trade industry
group representing movie theater owners, said its member
companies were “working closely with local law enforcement
agencies and reviewing security procedures.”

AMC Theaters, one of the largest chains in the United
States, said it would not allow guests to wear face-covering
masks or take fake weapons inside its buildings.

Carmike Cinemas, the nation’s fourth-largest theater chain,
said it was using uniformed “law enforcement officers and
plainclothes agents” at its 237 theaters.

Shares of movie theater chains dropped on Friday after the
killings. Cinemark Holdings, declined 4.6 percent to
close at $23.15 on the New York Stock Exchange. Regal
Entertainment Group shares fell 4.4 percent to close at
$13.54 on Nasdaq. Shares of Carmike slipped 2.3 percent to
$14.48, also on Nasdaq.

Shares of Time Warner Inc, the media conglomerate
that owns the Warner Bros. studio,

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, saw its
big-budget film take in a near record $30.6 million in midnight
screenings on Friday, but ticket sales were overshadowed by the
shooting. As news spread through the day, the film’s director,
Christopher Nolan, expressed his “profound sorrow” at the
rampage that took the lives of 12 people and injured 58 more.

While the studio did not cancel any of the movie’s planned
screenings, it did stop many promotions and some TV networks
stopped running advertisements for the movie.

Theater owners and police from New York to Los Angeles
beefed up security to assure people that the movies – a place to
escape troubles and be entertained – were still safe.

The head of Cinemark Holdings, owner of the Century
16 movie theater where the shooting occurred in Aurora,
Colorado, went on TV to stress the safety of moviegoing.
Cinemark CEO Tim Warner called the shooting “a one-off tragedy.”

“We play to 250 to 255 million people a year with very
little incidents. As so, the movie theaters are a very safe and
secure environment,” Warner said on CNBC.

“The Dark Knight Rises,” based on the exploits of
crime-fighting superhero Batman, is one of this year’s major
movie releases. Some box-office watchers had believed its U.S.
and Canadian ticket sales could reach as high as $198 million
over this debut weekend, just shy of the $207 million opening
set by “The Avengers” earlier this year. The movie cost Warner
Bros. $250 million to produce and tens of millions more to
market.

But at a midnight premiere in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, a
gunman wearing a gas mask and a bulletproof vest hurled a gas
canister inside the theater and opened fire on moviegoers.

“The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone
would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an
unbearably savage way is devastating to me,” Nolan said in his
statement. “Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately
express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling
crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.”

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Hollywood box-office watchers said it was too soon to know
exactly how ticket sales would be affected by the event because
the industry had never faced a situation like this one.

“It’s too early to tell. This is a tragic and unprecedented
event,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office watcher for
Hollywood.com Box Office.

Others said the killings might do little to dampen turnout
for “Dark Knight Rises,” the finale to a popular Batman saga.

“As horrible as this was, it is likely to affect ‘The Dark’
at the edges and won’t take away that many viewers,” said Tony
Wible, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott, who follows
entertainment companies and theater chains. “There are only a
few people who won’t come out to see a movie because of this.”

Some industry experts, including former Columbia Pictures
marketing head Peter Sealey, said the studio should scale back
its promotion of the film, and with strong advance word-of-mouth
publicity, it might not even need to advertise in order to bring
in big numbers at the box office.

“Warner Brothers should show sensitivity and pull the ads
for a week, certainly in Denver, and maybe around the country,”
said former Columbia Pictures marketing head Peter Sealey.

Phil Contrino, editor of Boxoffice.com, said the impact
could go beyond just “The Dark Knight Rises” to all films in
theaters if people stay away, and it could extend well into the
future if the event lingers in people’s minds.

Indeed, Hollywood and the movie industry have faced
real-life horrors before and shown sensitivity. On Friday,
Warner Bros. pulled a promotion for a mob film “Gangster Squad”
from theaters, canceled a “Dark Knight” premiere in Paris and
said it would not post any more box-office figures until the
weekend passed.

“Warner Bros. and the filmmakers are deeply saddened to
learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere
sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this
tragic time,” the company said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Warner pulled video ads for 9/11 film
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” around Ground Zero in New
York after residents there complained it was insensitive.

In the wake of those attacks back in 2001, promotional
posters for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s “Spider-Man” were
changed to remove images of the World Trade Center towers.

Back in 1991 at the premieres of gangland crime drama “Boyz
n The Hood,” one man was killed and many injured when random
violence erupted in several movie theaters across the United
States, forcing some venues to cancel screenings.

While much of Hollywood remained quiet in public, some
stars, including former California governor and actor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres, “American Idol” host
Ryan Seacrest and film director Kevin Smith took to Twitter to
express shock, sorrow and in some cases, anger.

“A mad man has shattered lives forever in Colorado. To
everyone who helped folks get to safety in that theatre THANK
YOU for your bravery … Hearts and Prayers to all affected by
the craziness in Colorado,” Whoopi Goldberg tweeted.

VIOLENCE IN MEDIA

In the days and weeks to follow, the shooting will likely
renew calls for ways to reduce violence in movies and people
will point to Hollywood as being, in some ways, responsible for
Friday’s deadly shooting spree.

Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills media psychiatrist who
specializes in the impact of media on people, thought it was
likely no coincidence that the suspected gunman, 24-year-old
James Eagan Holmes, picked the “Batman” movie with its violent
tale of good versus evil to carry out the deadly shooting.

“It’s tragic, but we’re going to find out that he has been
exposed to significant amounts of media violence in his past,”
she speculated.

The National Association of Theatre Owners, a trade industry
group representing movie theater owners, said its member
companies were “working closely with local law enforcement
agencies and reviewing security procedures.”

AMC Theaters, one of the largest chains in the United
States, said it would not allow guests to wear face-covering
masks or take fake weapons inside its buildings.

Carmike Cinemas, the nation’s fourth-largest theater chain,
said it was using uniformed “law enforcement officers and
plainclothes agents” at its 237 theaters.

Shares of movie theater chains dropped on Friday after the
killings. Cinemark Holdings, declined 4.6 percent to
close at $23.15 on the New York Stock Exchange. Regal
Entertainment Group shares fell 4.4 percent to close at
$13.54 on Nasdaq. Shares of Carmike slipped 2.3 percent to
$14.48, also on Nasdaq.

Shares of Time Warner Inc, the media conglomerate
that owns the Warner Bros. studio, which produced “Dark Knight
Rises,” dropped 28 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $38.86 on the NYSE.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, said the
film took in $30.6 million at screenings just after midnight,
but those results could turn lower in the wake of a mass
shooting at one showing of the movie in a Denver suburb.

In New York, police planned to deploy officers at screenings
throughout the city as a precaution, and theaters nationwide
began reviewing and tightening security.

The head of Cinemark Holdings, owner of the Century
16 movie theater where the shooting occurred in Aurora,
Colorado, went on television to stress the safety of moviegoing.
Cinemark CEO Tim Warner called the shooting “a one-off tragedy.”

“We play to 250 to 255 million people a year with very
little incidents. As so, the movie theaters are a very safe and
secure environment,” Warner said on CNBC.

“The Dark Knight Rises,” which is based on the exploits of
crime-fighting superhero Batman, is one of this year’s major
movie releases. Some box office watchers had believed its U.S.
and Canadian ticket sales could reach as high as $198 million
over this debut weekend, just shy of the $207 million opening
set by “The Avengers” earlier this year. The movie cost Warner
Bros. $250 million to produce and tens of millions more to
market.

But at a midnight premiere in Denver, a gunman wearing a gas
mask and a bulletproof vest hurled a gas canister inside the
theater and opened fire on moviegoers, killing 12 people and
injuring scores more.

Hollywood box office watchers said it was too soon to know
exactly how ticket sales would be impacted by the event as the
industry has never faced a situation like this one.

“It’s too early to tell. This is a tragic and unprecedented
event,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box office watcher for
Hollywood.com Box Office.

Phil Contrino, editor of Boxoffice.com, echoed those
sentiments, saying “nobody’s ever encountered this before” and
added that the first concerns should be for the people and
families who were affected by the shooting.

Contrino said the impact on Hollywood and the industry could
go beyond just “The Dark Knight Rises” to all films in theaters
if people stay away, and it could extend well into the future if
the event lingers in people’s minds.

Others said the incident would do little to dampen turnout
for “The Dark Knight Rises,” the finale to a popular Batman
saga.

“As horrible as this was, it is likely to affect ‘The Dark’
at the edges and won’t take away that many viewers,” said Tony
Wible, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott who follows
entertainment companies and theater chains. “There are only a
few people who won’t come out to see a movie because of this.”

Warner Bros. issued the midnight box office number but had
no further comment. It is the second highest midnight screening
total ever, behind 2011′s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Part II,” which raked in $43.5 million in its midnight
screenings.

The studio yanked from theaters the promotional trailer for
its upcoming crime thriller “Gangster Squad.” Set in the 1940s
and 1950s, “Gangster Squad” chronicles the Los Angeles Police
Department’s fight to keep the mafia out of its city.

The trailer, which had been playing ahead of “The Dark
Knight Rises” in some locations, features a scene in which men
open fire with machine guns on an audience in a movie theater.

Some industry experts said the studio should scale back its
promotions for the film.

“Warner Brothers should show sensitivity and pull the ads
for a week, certainly in Denver, and maybe around the country,”
said former Columbia Pictures marketing head Peter Sealey.

The movie, said Sealey, already “had incredible word of
mouth. They probably don’t even need to advertise over the next
week to have a truly huge film.”

Earlier this year, Warner pulled video ads for “Extremely
Loud and Incredibly Close” around Ground Zero in New York after
residents there complained it’s depiction of the Sept. 11
terrorist attack was insensitive.

Elsewhere, the National Association of Theatre Owners, a
trade industry association representing movie theater owners,
said in a statement its member companies were “working closely
with local law enforcement agencies and reviewing security
procedures.”

The ArcLight Cinemas in Los Angeles increased security at
all locations and said “Dark Knight” screenings would continue
as planned, according to a message from the theater on Twitter.

Carmike Cinemas, the nation’s fourth-largest theater chain,
said it uses uniformed “law enforcement officers and
plainclothes agents” and other security measures at its 237
theaters.

Carmike, which occasionally searches bags its customers
bring into the theater, isn’t likely to increase security
measures to include metal detectors or search moviegoers, said
Terrell Mayton, the company’s director of marketing.

Shares of movie theater chains dropped on Friday after the
killings.

Cinemark Holdings, owner of the Century 16 movie
theater where the shooting occurred, dropped 4.6 percent to
close at $23.15 on the New York Stock Exchange. Regal
Entertainment Group shares fell 4.4 percent to close at
$13.54 on Nasdaq. Shares of Carmike slipped 2.3 percent to
$14.48, also on Nasdaq.

Cinemark, in a statement, said it was “working closely” with
law enforcement authorities in Aurora and was “deeply saddened”
by the incident.

Shares of Time Warner Inc, the media conglomerate
that owns the Warner Bros. studio, which produced “Dark Knight
Rises,” dropped 28 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $38.86 on the NYSE.

Advertising show “Mad Men,” last year’s winner for best TV
drama, was nominated in 17 categories, as was new thriller
“American Horror Story” to lead the pack of shows in the hunt
for awards when they are given out in September. British show
“Downton Abbey” earned 16 nods.

Joining “Mad Men” and “Downton Abbey” in the best drama
category are psychological thriller “Homeland,” medieval period
piece “Game of Thrones” and past favorites “Boardwalk Empire”
and “Breaking Bad.”

In the comedy arena, “Modern Family,” which like “Mad Men”
won best TV show in its genre last year, pulled in 14
nominations including best TV comedy again. It will compete in
that arena against newcomers “Girls” and “Veep,” as well as “The
Big Bang Theory,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “30 Rock.”

The Emmys are the top TV awards in the United States given
out by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. This year’s
Emmy Awards will take place on September 23 and be broadcast on
the ABC television network.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy and Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by
Vicki Allen)

Zanuck, son of famed 20th Century Fox chieftain Darryl F.
Zanuck, who was named by his father at age 28 as Fox’s head of
production, making him Hollywood’s then youngest-ever studio
boss, died at his home in Beverly Hills, a spokesman said.

No further details were immediately available about the
circumstances of his death.

Zanuck, who spent the bulk of his career as an independent
producer, earned numerous awards during more than 50 years in
filmmaking.

Among his accolades were the Academy Award he shared with
his wife and collaborator, Lili Fini Zanuck, for their work on
“Driving Miss Daisy,” and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his
work with longtime associate David Brown.

Steven Spielberg, with whom Zanuck collaborated on “Jaws,”
called the producer “a cornerstone of our industry, both in name
and in deed.”

“In 1974, Dick Zanuck and I sat in a boat off Martha’s
Vineyard and watched the mechanical shark sink to the bottom of
the sea,” Spielberg recalled in a statement. “Dick turned to me
and smiled. ‘Gee, I sure hope that’s not a sign.’”

That moment of wry humor proved to be far from prophetic, as
“Jaws,” the tale of a great white shark that terrorizes a small
New England beach town, became one of the biggest hits of its
era and helped launch Spielberg’s career as a director.

Born in Los Angeles, Zanuck, whose mother was actress
Virginia Fox, joined his father as a story and production
assistant on two 20th Century Fox films, “Island in the Sun” and
“The Sun Also Rises.”

He debuted as a full-fledged producer at age 24 on 1959
feature film “Compulsion,” which starred Orson Welles. Four
years later, he was placed in charge of production at his
father’s studio.

During his eight-year tenure there, the studio cranked out a
series of critical and commercial successes, “The Sound of
Music,” “Patton” and “The French Connection,” all of which won
best film Oscars. Other Fox hits from that period include the
original “Planet of the Apes” series, the Paul Newman and Robert
Redford western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and the
Korean War satire “M*A*S*H.”

HOLLYWOOD HITS AND MISSES

But a handful of big-screen musical flops “greenlighted” for
production by Zanuck, among them “Doctor Dolittle,” “Hello
Dolly” and “Star,” cost the studio dearly and ultimately led to
his ouster in 1970 by his father.

From there, Zanuck and Brown moved briefly to Warner Bros.,
where they oversaw the making of the religious thriller “The
Exorcist” and Mel Brooks’ parody western, “Blazing Saddles”
before starting their own production company.

It was the Zanuck/Brown label that made Spielberg’s 1974
film directorial debut, “The Sugarland Express,” and his 1975
blockbuster “Jaws,” which earned Oscars for film editing, score
and sound.

Other Zanuck/Brown successes included “The Sting,” a
Depression-era tale of grifters that reunited Newman and Redford
and won seven Academy Awards, including best picture; courtroom
drama “The Verdict,” which earned five Oscar nominations, and
“Cocoon,” which won Oscars for best supporting Oscar (Don
Ameche) and visual effects.

Zanuck earned his greatest personal filmmaking accolade for
the first movie produced under his own Zanuck Company label, the
1989 film “Driving Miss Daisy,” about the relationship of a
stubborn old Jewish woman (Jessica Tandy) and her black
chauffeur (Morgan Freeman) in the American South.

The film earned four Oscars, including best actress for
Tandy and best picture for Zanuck and his wife.

The latter stretch of Zanuck’s career was marked by a close
collaboration with director Tim Burton, starting with a 2001
remake of “Planet of the Apes,” released by 20th Century Fox.

Others included the 2005 hit “Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory,” the critically acclaimed 2007 musical “Sweeney Todd:
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and the 2010 success “Alice in
Wonderland,” all starring Johnny Depp.

The last film of Zanuck’s career ended up being his sixth
collaboration with Burton, the critical and commercial bomb
“Dark Shadows,” also starring Depp and based on the 1960s
television series about lovelorn vampire.

In addition to his wife, Zanuck is survived by his sons
Harrison and Dean, and nine grandchildren.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Lopez, who joined the show two seasons ago but recently has indicated a desire to move on, told “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest in a radio interview that it was time to go.

“I just don’t feel like I can be there every single day all the time like I have been for the past two years,” Lopez told Seacrest, citing other business commitments and her duties as a mom raising two twins.

“You dread a conversation like this,” she told Seacrest. “I honestly feel like the time has come that I have to get back to doing the other things that I do, that I’ve put kind of on hold because I like ‘Idol’ so much,” she said.

Seacrest’s radio sidekick, Ellen K., said “it sounds like you’ve made up your mind,” and Lopez replied. “Yeah.”

Lopez, 42, is on concert tour this summer with Latin singer Enrique Iglesias and has two movies in theaters – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and “Ice Age: Continental Drift” – and another set for release next year.

A spokeswoman for the Fox TV network, which airs “American Idol,” said the broadcaster had no comment, and a representative for Lopez could not immediately be reached for further details.

Lopez, a star of movies and music whose hits include “On the Floor,” has for weeks been the subject speculation over whether she would stay on “Idol,” and as recently as Thursday on NBC news program “Today,” she indicated she would not return.

But her statements to Seacrest were her strongest yet on the subject. She did leave the door open to perhaps come back as a guest on “Idol,” or to mentor one of the contestants.

Lopez’s statements follow by one day an announcement from Aerosmith frontman Tyler and Fox that he will not return for the upcoming fall season. Tyler said he wanted to focus on his band.

Some media outlets also reported that third judge Randy Jackson, who has been with the program since its inception in 2002, also would bow out. But those reports could not be confirmed, and a spokesman for Jackson declined comment.

Even if Jackson stays, the loss of Lopez and Tyler portends a major shakeup on the show that has become a cash cow for Fox, generating $700 million in advertising sales in 2011, according to consultant Kantar Media. Forbes.com calculated that “Idol” was the most profitable show on TV in 2011, generating some $6.64 million in ad revenue for every half hour it aired.

While it remains the most-watched TV show contest in the United States, “Idol” has seen its ratings slump in recent years. May’s season finale drew 21.2 million viewers, well off its highs of more than 30 million in its heyday. Overall, it’s viewership was down 30 percent from the 2010 season.

Fox is a unit of media company News Corp.

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte and Courtney Garcia; Editing by Andrew Hay and Sofina Mirza-Reid)

Tyler’s departure comes as his fellow judge, Jennifer Lopez, also weighs whether to return to the program that once reigned supreme atop U.S. TV ratings but has seen its audience shrink in recent years. Third panelist Randy Jackson seems a likely bet to return this fall for the program’s 12th season as either a judge or in a mentoring role.

“I strayed from my first love, Aerosmith, and I’m back,” the band’s lead singer said in a statement.

“I’ve decided it’s time for me to let go of my mistress ‘American Idol’ before she boils my rabbit,” Tyler added, in a reference to the thriller movie, “Fatal Attraction.” “I got two fists in the air, and I’m kicking the door open with my band.”

Tyler, 64, and Aerosmith had amassed numerous hits like “Walk This Way” and “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” since gaining fame in the 1970s, but the group had reached a lull a few years back when the singer decided to join “American Idol” as a judge.

The addition of Tyler and Lopez to the judging panel in the season that began in January 2011 sparked great interest in the Fox TV network’s hit show.

But the most recent season that ended in May had the lowest-rated finale in 11 years with just 21.5 million Americans tuning in to watch Phillip Phillips win the title and recording contract that comes with it. More than 30 million viewers watched the show’s finale in its heyday in 2006 and 2007.

Mark Darnell, president of alternative entertainment for Fox, called Tyler “a terrific judge, a true friend, and great mentor” on the show.

“We are very sad that Steven has chosen to focus more on his music, but we always knew when we hired a rock ‘n roll legend, he would go back to music,” Darnell said in a statement.

Indeed, Tyler’s return to performing seemed foremost on his mind in March when Aerosmith announced it would go on a North American tour that began June 16, and release their first album in eight years, “Music From Another Dimension,” on November 6.

The flamboyant rocker’s departure leaves a big hole on the “American Idol” judges panel as he has been a fan favorite. He helped create one of this past season’s dramatic moments when young Jessica Sanchez was voted off by fans, then saved from elimination after Tyler and fellow judge Jackson stormed the stage in her defense. Sanchez went on to the finals.

Still in doubt is the fate of Lopez, another music superstar, who just this morning on NBC’s “Today” show seemed still undecided about her next move.

“It’s been on my mind a lot, as you can imagine,” she said. “You know, I signed on to ‘American Idol’ to do one year, and … I wound up doing the two years. And now it’s like, ‘OK, do we continue on this journey?’”

(Additional reporting by Courtney Garcia; Editing by Jan Paschal)