Over the past few weeks, there has been plenty of information made public after an unknown group hacked into Sony’s private servers, uploading unreleased films to file sharing sites and dumping personal emails between executives onto the internet. Up until now, we’ve opted not to report on any of these occurrences, but the most recent fallout from these events bears mentioning.
Yesterday, a threat was issued to Sony Studios and any theater choosing to screen the upcoming comedy film The Interview, which features James Franco and Seth Rogen as a pair of talk show hosts tasked with assassinating North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. Here’s the full text of the threat:
Warning
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.)
While North Korea issued a statement earlier this year that deemed the release of the film “an act of war,” there has been no link proven between the North Korean government. Likewise, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement yesterday that said “We are still analyzing the credibility of these statements, but at this time there is no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States.”
But that hasn’t stopped people from panicking, and as of the time of this posting, the nation’s five largest theater chains – Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas and Cineplex Entertainment – have all elected to drop the film. THR got the following statement from Regal:
“Due to the wavering support of the film The Interview by Sony Pictures, as well as the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats, Regal Entertainment Group has decided to delay the opening of the film in our theatres.”
As Russ Fischer over at /Film points out, this sets a very dangerous precedent, and shows that “major companies will back down in the face of even an insubstantial threat.” It’s likely that theaters weren’t willing to leave themselves open to a nasty legal situation that could arise if someone decided to make good on the threats, but with no actual credible evidence that the threats are legitimate, this is a disappointing turn of events.
Meanwhile, Sony is now considering a premium VOD release for the film, according to Variety. This could be an interesting move, as it would allow the studio to recover some of the revenue they’ll be losing by having the film dropped by some of the nation’s largest chains, and could also serve as an experiment on the viability of the VOD platform. And of course, it would be a nice middle finger to all those theaters who opted to back down.
Right now, it sounds like Sony still intends to make the film available on Christmas Day, to theaters that are willing to screen it. If the VOD release moves forward, it would likely be day-and-date with the theatrical release, although no information on a possible price is currently available. We’ll continue to update this story as it develops.
james franco seth rogen sony the interview