Well, it’s finally happened. We ‘Muricans have let the terrorists win! After the Sony hackers – a group which calls themselves the Guardians of Peace – threatened to go 9/11 on every theatre who went ahead with showing the stupid Seth Rogen and James Franco “comedy” (it’s all relative, guys) The Interview, Sony has decided to scrap the film’s scheduled Christmas Day release altogether.
Here’s Sony’s full statement on the matter:
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 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.
In a way, I guess I sorta understand why they made this decision. The individual theatres were pulling out of showing the movie, so frankly they didn’t have much choice. They can still make a ton of money by releasing it VOD or whatever – after all, nothing makes people more interested in something than not being able to have it.
Then again, it’s all getting a bit ridiculous. Since when did we bow to bullshit threats like that? Steve Carell’s apparently had a similar movie scheduled to come out and that’s been cancelled now, too, and he called it a really sad day for creative expression, and I kind of agree. Franco and Rogen have even pulled out of all remaining press for the movie because I guess they’re shitting their pants about being assassinated or whatever. I don’t know, I just think this whole thing is fascinating, and a bit of a mess.
It’s a racist, insensitive film. I don’t understand how it was made in the first place. To quote this article: “The day will soon come when North Koreans are finally free, and liberated concentration camp survivors will have to learn that the world was more interested in the oddities of the oppressors than the torment of the oppressed”. We are better than that. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/12/north-korea-is-not-funny-the-interview-sony/383885/?single_page=true