In lieu of terrorist threats from the hacker group that recently pulled off the Sony cyber attacks, Sony Studios has decided to pull the controversial James Franco and Seth Rogen comedy The Interview from theaters.
After an estimated $80 million investment in marketing and production cost Sony said the picture will not be released in any format; no on-demand, no dvds, NOTHING!
Sony just released a statement, saying, “In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release.”
In case you haven’t heard about the cyber-attacks at Sony, the hacks downloaded five unreleased films and exposed numerous internal emails which revealed racism among executives as well as a host of other sensitive company info.
The state-sponsored hacker group “Guardians of Peace” based out of North Korea and claim the attacks were undertaking as revenge for the comedy portraying their leader, Kim Jong UN, being assassinated by a CIA sponsored news team.
The FBI said the chances of any terrorist activities actually happening were slim-to-none, but Sony caved anyway to the threats. With all of the PR disasters Sony has had lately this move didn’t do them any favors.
Twitter and Facebook have exploded with angry Americans blasting the company’s cowardice whether they had any interest in seeing the movie in the first place.
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Here’s the warning that prompted Sony to cancel:
The terrorist threat reads as follows:
“We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to. Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.
The world will be full of fear, remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment. All the world will denounce the SONY.”
This is much more to this than a company pulling a movie from the theaters. The cancellation raises issues about free speech, cyber security, and our American way of life.
It’s scary to think that now filmmakers will be less likely to make potentially edgy movies in fear that they may not get released because some awful country may not like it. It’s a sad day for our most sacred right in America: free speech.
Even if something is tasteless or truly offensive, tough shit. This is America and you get the right to express yourself in anyway you want….hmmm..unless North Korea doesn’t like it apparently.
One ironic aspect of the story is the fact that probably almost none of the N. Korea’s citizens even know the movie exists. Internet or any contact with the outside world is forbidden for regular citizens in the repressive communist nation.
What shocked many tech experts is the level of expertise the rogue nation have to execute such a damaging and complete cyber attack. Lawsuits are already being levied against Sony by employees for failure to protect their own personal information.
It’s important to take their level of hacking sophistication with a grain of salt though, it’s not like they hacked the Pentagon. It was a private company with someone asleep at the wheel, or they may have even had inside help. Nonetheless, it is a bit scary a country that has problems producing basics like food and shelter for its people could pull something like this off.
It may seem like the North Korean’s have won the first cyber war with the United States so far, but the funny part is a bootleg will unquestionably be leaked somewhere online and more Americans will probably see the movie than ever would have without this international incident.
A more likely scenario is that Sony will eventually release the film direct to video at some point; corporations aren’t big fans of taking $80 losses.
Overall, it’s a sad state of affairs if a foreign litter box of a country can bully the U.S. on any level especially on cultural issues. Hopefully, this will be just a one-time incident and in the future filmmakers won’t be scared to tackle hot button issues.
