Sony cancels release of North Korea comedy ‘The Interview’

Sony Pictures has cancelled the Christmas Day release of its North Korea comedy The Interview, after major US cinema chains pulled out of showing the film following threats from hackers.

Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment and Cinemark cancelled bookings for The Interview, a crude comedy that had prompted a threat of terror against cinemas. Together with Carmike Cinemas, which decided not to play The Interview on Tuesday, the four exhibitors control more than 19,200 screens in the US and Canada, ending any prospect of a serious theatrical release.

Sony Pictures, which made the $44 million comedy has been victimised by a devastating cyber-attack.

Spokesmen for AMC, Cinemark and Carmike either declined to comment or could not immediately be reached.

John Fithian, chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners, did not respond to queries. Sony had no immediate comment. Regal said in a statement: "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."

Several smaller chains, including Bow Tie Cinemas, with 350 screens, also decided not to show The Interview, which depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and was co-directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. To depict the killing of a sitting world leader, comically or otherwise, is almost without precedent in major studio movies, film historians say.

On Tuesday a threat of terrorism against cinemas that show the film was made in rambling emails sent to various news outlets. The threat read in part, "Remember the 11th of September 2001". The emails aimed the threat at "the very times and places" at which The Interview was to play in its early showings.

Once the hackers threatened physical violence, the film's cancellation became almost inevitable, even though Sony had spent a day maintaining its plans for the release and premiere. Since the Aurora, Colorado, cinema shooting in 2012, Cinemark had fought lawsuits with a defence that said the incident was not foreseeable – a stance that would have been almost impossible with The Interview.

The film’s collapse stirred considerable animosity among Hollywood companies and players. Cinema owners were angry that they had been boxed into leading the pullback. Executives at competing studios privately complained that Sony should have acted sooner or avoided making the film altogether. And Sony employees and producers bitterly complained that they had been jeopardised to protect the creative prerogatives of Rogen and Goldberg.

New York Times