14 DAY TRIAL // When it rains, it pours for Sony Pictures these days. In November this year, hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace (#GOP) broke into Sony servers and stole thousands of files with sensitive data, from home addresses and social security numbers of the employees to private email exchanges between Sony executives.
The one demand that the hackers made when threatening to start making public the information they’d stolen was that Sony Pictures back down on the release of a movie called “The Interview,” starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, in which they played 2 men tasked with the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
The studio refused to comply and even said that it would go ahead with the release as planned. Just the other day, Franco and Rogen started doing press for the film – so #GOP retaliated with a 9/11-type threat, saying it would bomb theaters across the US running the film.
NYC premiere canceled, more to follow
TMZ confirms that Sony has canceled the NYC premiere of the film, to which Franco and Rogen were also expected to attend, in light of this new threat. THR says that Carmike Cinemas, which operates 278 theaters in 41 states, has decided not to show the film – and more will follow suit, no doubt.
On the other hand, Sony Pictures is yet to comment on the fate of the comedy or whether it has any plans of pulling it from its domestic schedule. It has, however, announced all theater owners that the decision to screen “The Interview” is entirely up to them, regardless of any previous business deal they had.
Sony would support whatever decision they make, studio people said. This was a response to theaters asking for upped security from Sony to meet their end of the bargain and run the film.
Carmike Cinemas is probably the first theater chain to drop the film from their schedule: even if authorities are saying there is no credibility to the new threat, it is of such a nature that it can’t be ignored.
Franco, Rogen go into hiding
Just yesterday, the two seemed amused by what was happening with the Sony Hack, all because of a little movie they made and which they wanted to be fun and funny and the perfect Holiday flick. Rogen, who gets writing and directing credits as well, also said he was proud of the finished product and that he had no regrets about anything he’d done in relation to it.
It seems Sony has decided that, in light of the new threat, he and Franco could be in danger, so they have been pulled from all pre-scheduled media appearances, says Variety. This includes Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and Buzzfeed Brews.
The press tour for the film started last Friday, when they made a special appearance at the LA premiere of the film, but they didn’t engage with the media in any way: they just came up on stage at one point and thanked Sony Pictures co-chairwoman Amy Pascal for having the cojones to back up such a unique project.
Since then and today, they’ve done precisely 2 appearances: one on ABC’s Good Morning America and another on Howard Stern’s radio show. They claimed they were unfazed by the hackers’ threats and refused to believe their movie could be the real reason for the Sony Hack.
That didn’t change the fact that each appearance triggered an angry response from #GOP: Friday’s prompted a new leak and a new warning, and yesterday’s interviews led to this major threat of bombing theaters that would screen the comedy.
