An Americanised update of the Shakespeare play Othello, completed nearly two years ago, looks set to have its release date bumped back yet again in the wake of Monday's fatal shooting in a school in San Diego, California.

The movie, O, is set in a high-school and closes with the bloody death of four students. But true-life events have dogged it from the moment it completed production.

Directed by Tim Blake Nelson (best known as the doleful third escapee in the Coen Brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou), O boasts a vogeuish cast in Julia Stiles (playing "Desi"), Martin Sheen, Mekhi Phifer and Josh Hartnett.Yet, according to a report on Hollywood.com, the film has had to deal with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune for almost two years.

O finished filming in the summer of 1999 and backers Miramax and Dimension set a release date of October 1999. It was put back on the shelf in the wake of the Columbine high-school massacre, when Miramax chairman Bob Weinstein explained that "we felt the responsible thing was to postpone the release due to the sensitive events occuring at the time." In the event, O idled there for the whole of election year 2000, as the federal Trade Commission and politicians such as John McCain and Joe Lieberman criticised what they regarded as a diet of movie violence targeted at teenagers. A US release date of April 27 2001 was finally set earlier this year. Now the San Diego shooting may well push the film even further into the future.

"We are not commenting on the release of the film, given the unfortunate incident that occurred in San Diego," Dimension publicist Elizabeth Clark told Variety. "What happened there is a very serious issue. The release of our movie is minor in comparison." Last word, for the time being, goes to star Julia Stiles: "There is some fear of it being controversial it's easy for people to associate the violence with what's happened recently."