Sony pulls The Interview amid terror threats
Following numerous threats from hackers this week, Sony have decided to pull The Interview from its scheduled Christmas Day release in the US. The comedy, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, follows their avid news reporters into North Korea where they have been secretly hired by the CIA to assassinate the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. Since the announcement of the project, North Korea were already initially dismayed at the prospect – but on Tuesday, in the aftermath of the Sony hacking scandal, those same hackers issued a threat that involved any cinemas showing The Interview. ‘Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time,’ ran the message, ‘Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.’
Originally, US intelligence stated that there was ‘no credible information’ to link the hackers to North Korea, but that has since changed. This seems to have moved Sony into pulling their movie from cinemas; US chains including Regal Cinemas, AMC Entertainment and Cinemark Theatres all announced they were postponing screenings of The Interview, which also damaged any plans for Sony to release the film in any form.
What does this mean for The Interview? Sony have issued a statement that there are ‘no further release plans for the film,’ which also means no VOD or home release plans, while we’ve also learned that Steve Carrell’s project Pyongyang has been scrapped. Keep checking Flickreel for updates.