Django Unchained premiere cancelled to honour shooting victims

The red-carpet Hollywood premiere of Quentin Tarantino's garishly violent new film, Django Unchained, has been cancelled, the latest such response to the Connecticut school massacre.

A string of movies and television shows have been pulled or postponed since Friday's shootings, while sporting events have held moments of silence and players have worn black armbands to honour the victims.

The Weinstein Company said the Django premiere scheduled for yesterday in Los Angeles had been called off.

The film will open as scheduled on Christmas Day across the United States.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the tragedy ... and in this time of national mourning we have decided to forgo our scheduled event," a company spokesman said.

The studio still planned a screening for cast and crew and their friends and families, industry daily Variety reported.

Tarantino is known for screen violence and gunplay, in movies from 1992's Reservoir Dogs to 2009's Inglorious Basterds.

In his new film, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner.