Sony has canceled all release dates, including abroad

Dec 19, 2014 12:42 GMT  ·  By
"The Interview" was initially set in a fictional country, with a fictional dictator
8 photos
   "The Interview" was initially set in a fictional country, with a fictional dictator

Even though Sony Pictures has canceled the domestic and international release of the comedy “The Interview” with James Franco and Seth Rogen, more email exchanges between Sony executives continue to leak online, following the breach from November.

Hackers grouped under the name Guardians Of Peace (apparently acting on behalf of North Korea, whose leader the film mocks) broke into the Sony servers and stole thousands of files with sensitive data, including email conversations on all the ongoing projects at the studio and even at rival studios, scripts, footage, and marketing plans.

A draft of Dan Sterling’s 2012 script of “The Interview,” before Seth Rogen got to work on it, has also leaked.

Kim Jong-un was most likely gay

If it’s true that it was North Korea who ordered the attack on Sony because of the film, Kim Jong-un must have thought he had a very good reason to be upset and take this course of action, particularly since the movie (or at least this script that got out) painted him as this wuss who listened to Katy Perry in secret, ate until he got sick, and was gay to boot.

Showbiz411 obtained segments from the script, one of which describes an orgy with Kim and Dave Skylark (James Franco) and a bevy of girls. The scene is actually of the morning after, with Kim and Skylark in bed, nude, playing Mortal Kombat, and while it doesn’t make it clear that the two also had relations, the implication is there.

In another scene, Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) warns Skylark not to get too close to the dictator because he knows for a fact that he can perform a certain act on another man… “while ice-skating backwards.” There is no innuendo here, as you probably guessed.

Sterling defends the film: we wanted to do something really funny

Despite the fact that many Sony executives from international territories thought “The Interview” was “desperately unfunny,” Dan Sterling is defending it, saying that he never imagined a silly project that was meant to be funny would become something this controversial.

“When I set out to write the script for The Interview, I didn’t know if anyone would ever make the movie, and it certainly didn’t occur to me that the people we are making fun of would take it seriously. Turns out I was naïve; they did take it seriously. Very seriously,” he says in a recent interview cited by Fox.

Chances are his draft didn’t include Kim Jong-un, from what we can make from other leaked emails: the initial plan for the film was to have it set in a fictional country featuring a fictional dictator, but a Sony exec decided that it would be better if it had Kim as the main villain. This wasn’t Sterling or Rogen’s call – yet Sony didn’t stand by its decision and pulled the film after pressure from the hackers.

Film is shelved – for now

Shortly after the announcement that the film wouldn’t be out in theaters in the US and some other territories on Christmas day as scheduled, “The Interview” was still up for release in 46 other countries. Not anymore: the studio has canceled all international releases as well, and won’t put it out on DVD or VOD (Video On Demand) either.

In other words, it could be that “The Interview” will never see the light of day. Sony won’t say if it’s shelved for good, which has prompted industry insiders to speculate that it’s considering a much later release, in one shape or another.

Sony's The Interview, 2014 (8 Images)

"The Interview" was initially set in a fictional country, with a fictional dictator
Kim Jong-un is portrayed as closeted gay in "The Interview"Kim Jong-un from "The Interview" loves Katy Perry and fooling around with men
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