The New York premiere of The Interview, a Sony Pictures comedy about the assassination of North Korean President Kim Jong Un, has been cancelled after threats from a hacking group.
The hackers, who said they were also responsible for seizing control of Sony Entertainment's computer system last month, on Tuesday warned people to stay away from cinemas showing the film starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, and darkly reminded moviegoers of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time,” the hackers wrote.
“If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.”
A spokeswoman for Landmark, which was to host a premiere of the film at its Sunshine Cinema in New York on Thursday, said the screening had been cancelled, but did not explain why.
A Sony spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the threat.
Sony executives had earlier told theater owners it would not pull the film, but they would not object if theatres decided to cancel screenings, a source close to the discussions said.
An official at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and another US security official said investigations had found nothing concrete so far to substantiate the threat.
"At this time there is no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States, " the DHS official said.
Police departments in Los Angeles and New York said they were take the warning seriously.
Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck told a news conference that officers would be taking extra precautions to make sure movie theaters were “as safe as we can make them”.
He said the threats were “done to put terror” into US audiences.
The North Korean government previously denounced the film as “undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war” in a letter to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
Cyber attack
BuzzFeed reported that Franco and Rogen had cancelled all planned media appearances on Tuesday and representatives for the actors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
US security agencies are investigating a hacking group that carried out the cyber attack in November that severely damaged the movie studio’s network and published damaging internal emails, unreleased films and employee data online. The group published what appeared to be more internal emails on Tuesday.
Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, said he believed it was the first time a film screening had been pulled in the wake of a high-profile cyber attack.
“If they pulled the premier because of the hacking it’s troubling. The moment you start reacting is the moment you give them more power,” he said.
Sony is already reeling from the disclosures in documents released by the hackers, which have publicly exposed important internal discussions.
Reuters