14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Pictures has folded under constant pressure and threats from a group of hackers identified as Guardians Of Peace (#GOP), which broke into their servers last month and released numerous files with sensitive and embarrassing information because it would not cancel the release of the action comedy “The Interview.”
“The Interview” will not be released on Christmas Day in theaters in most territories, as initially scheduled. Neither will it be out on DVD or VOD (Video On Demand), the studio says in a statement to Variety.
This response comes after a 9/11-style threat from #GOP, saying that they would bomb all theaters screening the film – and was just what I predicted would happen yesterday.
“We are extremely disappointed”
Since the breach, #GOP has been releasing private Sony data, including the home addresses, social security numbers and salaries of current and former employees, private email conversations between studio executives, and much more. #GOP has also been leaving threatening messages, with the most recent also being the most chilling.
It urged all potential moviegoers who wanted to live to steer clear from all theaters screening “The Interview,” a movie dubbed a threat to international peace because of its plotline: an assassination ploy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. It even warned those living near such threats to move out to avoid being killed.
Sony initially told theater owners that the decision to screen or not the film was entirely up to them, which triggered a series of mass cancelations, to the point where it was no longer commercially sound to go ahead with the release. The bomb threat was also a question Sony could not ignore.
“We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome,” Sony says.
“Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale – all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like,” the studio adds in the same statement.
The terrorists have won
This is the predominant feeling right now in the industry: while Sony clearly had no other chance but to pull the film because such a serious threat (even if ultimately a bluff) could never be ignored, by canceling the release, they did exactly what the hackers asked of them.
In other words, they have set a very dangerous precedent, one that shows that a group of people can indeed thwart plans of a major movie studio by taking action against them and threatening them.
This way, #GOP became the master of ceremony at a party it wasn’t even invited, and they played the music and Sony danced. Various celebrities and industry executives are already voicing their displeasure with the studio for the course of action they have chosen, saying freedom of speech and art should never be censored or dictated by terrorist actions.
Then again, it’s not like Sony had much of a choice: no movie, and especially one as reportedly bad as “The Interview” is (which is simply not funny enough, studio execs said in a batch of those leaked emails), is worth taking the risk of putting so many people in danger.
There was also the money issue to consider: if Sony had stuck with the release schedule, it would have ruined the box office chances of all other movies (from other studios) coming out during the very lucrative holiday season. This isn’t to say that Sony acted selflessly here, but rather that there was pressure from within the industry to cancel the release.
Don’t cry for Sony just yet
However, things aren’t as bad as it might seem. Media outlets are all reporting on Sony’s decision using very negative and impacting words like “cancel” and “pull” and “drop / dump,” but don’t be deceived: Sony isn’t exactly shelving the film.
This is, after all, a movie studio and a movie studio’s main concern is to make art money from making movies. In Hollywood, the Green God rules supreme and no movie studio would ever stop trying to do whatever it can to recoup losses from a failed project.
“The Interview” cost Sony $44 million (€35.7 million), and while this isn’t an astronomical figure for a movie studio, it’s not money that it’s willing to lose. So “The Interview” is still being released, though on the low down.
The film’s IMDB page lists 46 countries that will get a theatrical release of the film starting January 22 through April 17, 2015. That’s not much for a film with 2 stars as big as James Franco and Seth Rogen and for a studio as big as Sony Pictures, but it’s not nothing.
The terrorists may have won the battle, but Sony seems to still be winning the war. Or at least those millions back.
