Sony Pulls The Interview From Theaters

Posted on December 17, 2014

Sony just pulled the plug on the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy The Interview. Sony announced it would not release the comedy about the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un after all major theaters said they would not show the film due to fears of violence.

An anonymous group calling itself the Guardians of Peace has threatened a 9/11 like attack on filmgoers who attend the Christmas Day showings of The Interview. The major theater owners, including AMC and Cinemark, caved after the threats and refused to show the film.

Sony 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. We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theater-goers."

Sony then addressed the devastating hack of its servers which has caused incalculable damage to employees whose social security numbers and health records were released. The hacks exposed all emails to and from Sony for the last decade. Sony chief Amy Pascal has been humiliated with the revelation of her emails with producer Scott Rudin which contained racist jokes and blunt assessments about major movie stars such as Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Sony said, "Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale -- all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome."

The theater chains have shown great cowardice in bowing to anonymous terrorist threats over a silly comedy. Now Sony has simply bowed to the inevitable and pulled the film. The most likely outcome is that Sony will release the film on demand, so that moviegoers can see the film in the privacy of their own living rooms.

The film's New York City premiere was cancelled earlier today over threats of violence. Seth Rogen and James Franco have cancelled all their media appearances, including one on The Tonight Show. This is a very dangerous precedent to set. So what will be the next film that's pulled from theaters because someone makes an anonymous threat?

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