14 DAY TRIAL // After cancelling the release of the comedy “The Interview” as a result of hackers making terrorist threats on cinemas that would play it on Christmas day, Sony decided to make the movie available, offering the possibility to rent or buy it on YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.
On Sunday, David Boies, lawyer for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), said that the initial decision to pull the movie was only a temporary one, as the company revised its options for distribution.
Sony declined some offers to distribute the comedy
“Sony only delayed this. Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed,” Boies said, adding that at that time the details of how this would be carried out were not ironed out.
Sony had previously received offers for distribution, one of them coming from Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, who was ready to purchase the rights for the movie for $100,000 / €73,000 only to make it available for free online, via file sharing services.
Another offer came from BitTorrent, who made a proposition to Sony to release it via its own Bundle publishing platform, where a paygate could be set for monetization.
With all the free publicity resulting from Guardians of Peace hackers – who breached Sony Pictures Entertainment’s network, stole a huge cache of corporate information and dumped part of it online – the interest in the movie soon reached incredible heights; not only from services seeking to take advantage of the situation, but also from fans worldwide.
Sony chose high-profile services to deliver The Interview
However, it appears that the company was already in talks with high-profile online service owners, Google in particular, that could help with delivering “The Interview.”
In a blog post on Christmas Eve, David Drummond, SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer at Google, said that “starting at 10 a.m. PST in the U.S., you can rent or buy ‘The Interview’ on Google Play and YouTube Movies.”
At the moment, a preview is available on YouTube. Unlocking the full video can be done by renting it for $5.99 / €4.90. Purchasing the picture is also possible, for $14.99 / €12.30, on both YouTube and Google Play.
Sony also released it through Xbox Video and seetheinterview.com, where it can be rented or purchased for the same prices.
Fans across the world will have to wait some more to get access to the comedy, as Sony is currently offering it to US customers only. Of course, this hurdle can be overcome if the payment is done from a US IP address using VPN services, and with a valid US card.
On Christmas day, “The Interview” will also run in cinemas in the US, 200 theaters having already booked screenings.
