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I'm disappointed to see them cave over some obviously empty threats.  Score one for terrorism.

I've personally been against this movie all along (even before the Sony hack and such) and I'm glad they stopped showing it. There is a very obvious difference between parody movies (think Team America World Police) and a thinly veiled realistic threat that the US is going to use the media to assassinate the leader of North Korea. I wasn't worried about hurting Kim Jong Un's feelings, I was worried that the movie would make him more paranoid and it would put Americans or suspected Americans in danger. Look at American cinematography, there are hundreds of movies about the president being kidnapped by terrorists, aliens, the works, but they are always either fictional presidents or an already dead ones. If a North Korean movie came out about an attempted hit on the president, there would be a lot of protest and people calling it propaganda.

Am I against freedom of expression? No, but I think there is a major double standard here. That and North Korea doesn't need any more reasons somewhat fictional or not, to suspect the US of an assassination attempt against Kim.

This has been done when the Department of Homeland Security says that the threat is not credible.
They should have shown more spine.

As I said in https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=666307.msg9884609#msg9884609 this might just be a marketing move. With the attention the hack got, no matter who did it, build up even more attention, then release the movie some time later. That or those 100TB contain something Sony wants to keep secret at all costs.

Pulling out the movie doesn't show Sony in a favourable light.
Plus they already got a lot of publicity until now; no point in postponing the movie release.

Cowards, the lot of them, North Korea just won this battle, for all the trash talking the American congress does on camera they certainly can't back it up when facing a country that has an actual standing army.

I agree with you 100%.  I guess Charlie Chaplin put out "The Great Dictator" of a living dictator.  People assume the world is sane, it is not NK might change their target to Hollywood and I live near there.  Why would anyone even offer to do this job, Rogan et. al. must be idiots.  It is really a sign of U.S. arrogance and self -righteousness. This movie is going to get into NK and the people are going to see it.  What next an ISIS movie about beheading Obama and raping his daughters, ha ha. Horrible!

In agreement, the fact that the people decided to make this a Christmas release as well just seems like they were egging North Korea to retaliate in one way or the other, if someone here released a lets all kill Obama the comedy on Christmas a storm would ensue, at least with Team America World Police it was puppets and everyone was well owned. (Although steelhouse has a good one Obama gets owned by ISIS and a bunch of rape occurs as a bonus lets make this a holiday release imagine the outcry)

Simple enough solution don't make movies about assassinating heads of states when their alive especially if your technically hostile to them lol.

I had a conversation with someone about this actually.  Although it truly sucks that they pulled it, they had no other option but to pull it.  If someone were to even get hurt at any place due to this movie.  The lawsuit would be terrible. 

Until Sony and the government actually find out who is hacking, they have full control

the rumor I heard is the movie wasnt creating the buzz they thought it would along with poor testing with test groups.

Also I'm sure when they do release it in the future or in demand or dvd whatever.... It will do double what it would of done just being a bad movie with moderately funny people.

Even if the movie was testing poorly, they wouldn't go to this length in order to make sure that the movie doesn't come out. 

They are losing millions of dollars on this, and thats all they are thinking about is trying to minimize the amount of loss they will have on this project.

All I can say, respect to North-Koreans (whatever my view on the N-K policies are otherwise). They show in a no-nonsense way that they are no push-overs.  ;D

I highly doubt it is a marketing move.  The hackers made off with a tonne of information from Sony, some of it highly personal and sensitive.  They have halted tours of their studios, and Sony employees have filed a class action lawsuit against them for leaking the data. They've also lost a ton of brand power, productivity, and reputation over this. I'm sure lots of people have lost theirs jobs as well. 

If it is a marketing move, it's a highly risky one.  Sony has a lot more to lose over this than gain.  Pisses me off, I was looking forward to seeing it.  They filmed much of it in Vancouver.

At worst, I see the film as a provocation propaganda at a time when North and South Korea seek to reunite, which is not to the US liking. This is why Obama took such a strong stance, when the film got stopped.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-19/north-korean-hack-of-sony-not-acceptable-state-conduct-fbi-says.html

At best, it is a political "black PR" move, on the same line as "Borat".

Oh, well, Russia at least tries to act as a peace broker, having invited both the South Korean president and the North Korean leader to Moscow for the 9th of May celebration next year, giving them an opportunity to talk on neutral territory:
http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2014/12/20/n_6762937.shtml

I don't really care for the film but I hope it is released at some point. I wonder what their reaction will be when it is released seeing as N Korea want's it shelved forever.


Why would anyone take their threats seriously? Serious terrorists don't make threats or give advance warnings, they just attack.

I personally don't think the NK is capable to pulling off any major kind of terrorist attack, nor any major act of war that would do physical harm to American citizens (Americans would be the ones targeted). Any attempt of either of the above would be considered an act of war and a reason for the US government to argue that the Chinese government should no longer support NK and if the Chinese government can be convinced as such the NK government will likely quickly collapse.

At this point it is far from a marketing move. Even the US government has investigated and has pointed their finger at a state actor being behind the hack (North Korea). Additionally there is the threat of a terrorist attack which would horribly backfire if it was determined that Sony was fabricating this

There are suggestions that the movie halls didn't want to screen it and Sony took the flak for acceding to their request and not releasing the film.

A place in Montreal is still going to release the movie as of today but they may change due to threats.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/the-interview-may-still-see-theatres-in-toronto-155000526.html

Yeah I heard that they were afraid there were going to get sued if anyone one got hurt Like the aurora shooting in Colorado a couple years back.

Looks like Anonymous will be releasing the movie as a sort of Christmas gift, LOL! What a disaster for Sony.  Sony Pictures was helping keep Sony afloat as they've been losing billions. Gotta wonder where Sony goes from here.  The damage from all this will be interesting to watch play out.

http://uproxx.com/movies/2014/12/anonymous-north-korea-plan-release-the-interview/ (http://uproxx.com/movies/2014/12/anonymous-north-korea-plan-release-the-interview/)

"It was only a matter of time before the hacker collective Anonymous put their two cents in regarding the Sony hack. Early on Friday, one of Anon’s many Twitter accounts set their sights on North Korea, the hacker group known as #GOP (aka Guardians of Peace) and Sony Pictures regarding the decision to pull The Interview from theaters. From the looks of things, they are planning on releasing the movie to the world themselves. From Twitter:"

There are a bunch of twitter comments in the link from anonymous bashing Sony, LOL!


Considering it America, I could see a few whack jobs using it as an excuse to shoot up a bunch of theaters.

People will find excuses to shoot up a place anyway really.

I don't think this would be a disaster for Sony. I don't think Anonymous would release the interview if sony releases in on or around xmas online (which they may or may not do).

Well it seems like anon would release it but wait on Sonys part to see if they do or not
For a few days at least while the executives there discuss options.

North Korea stronk!

Nice PR stunt Sony. the whole thing is fabricated.

Hmm, have you read anything about this?  The whole thing is not fabricated, you think North Korea would be in on this as well? 

Do you think Sony enjoys losing hundreds of millions of dollars?

I don't think it's a PR stunt but it might not have anything to do with North Korea. Just seems a little too convenient. And have Anonymous provided proof that they have the film? I actually really want to see it.

North Korea keeps responding about it, so I am guessing it has something to do with them.

As far as a release Sony announced just recently they will be releasing it via steam for 100% free.  How this is a PR stunt, is beyond me, Sony losing millions upon millions of dollars and releasing the movie for free, yeah doesn't sound like a PR move.

They've said it will be released!

It was all a plot to get a bigger audience..

They are simply not informed people that are calling it a PR stunt.

All great points but your last one, this will probably be the LEAST pirated movie in history.

Sony is releasing it for 100% free so there is absolutely no reason to pirate this movie at all.

http://nypost.com/2014/12/21/sony-plans-to-release-the-interview-on-crackle-for-free/

By the looks of it, Sony is trying to release it before anonymous does.  Guess this way, Sony will figure they might get people using their service, which will likely bring in ad revenue. Also, I imagine many will still choose to pirate the movie, instead of using the Sony site. I'd rather download it, put on a usb stick, and watch it on my TV.

At this point it is certainly not a PR move. It would have been more believable early when sony was first reported being hacked, as the leaked information could have been faked, they could have given up a not-yet-released movie in order to drum up extra anticipation/hype about this one, however at this point the employee information appears to be real, and they are not going to be faking a terrorist threat

I didn't mean that they faked the hack, only that not releasing the movie might be a publicity stunt. Trying to make the best of the situation. But as you and others said, even doing that cost them and cinema chains a lot of reputation, so that doesn't seem the case. But I doubt North Korea was behind this. Too much of a convenient scapegoat.

Yeah, I don't see North Korea being behind it, easy target for blame from the USA though.

Also, it looks like Sony will be releasing the movie in theaters Christmas day.

In a bizarre twist ... Sony has done an about face and it's green-lighting "The Interview" for theaters to run on XMAS day.

The CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema tells TMZ  .... Sony called Monday and said a copy of the film would be delivered Wednesday. The CEO -- was vague about extra security, but says it will run in more than 20 theaters, located in Texas, Colorado, Virginia, New York and more.

An Atlanta theater owner says he got a similar call and he plans on running it as well.

The Alamo group plans to make it a celebration, with margaritas ... which will probably make the movie better.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2014/12/23/sony-releasing-the-interview-christmas-day-theaters/ (http://www.tmz.com/2014/12/23/sony-releasing-the-interview-christmas-day-theaters/)

Personally, I don't really care to see it. Not at theater prices anyway.  Is/was it all a publicity stunt? I don't really know anymore, but I think the damage has already been done.  Guess we will see what kind of interest they get for the movie in a few days.

The retaliation seems to be at North Korea. Internet was down for quite some time in Korea.

People are conveniently forgetting that piratebay fooled people into thinking their servers were in North Korea at one point, I.P addresses are extremely unreliable evidence because they can changed at a whim.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2030073/the-pirate-bay-admits-to-north-korean-hosting-hoax.html

Hell, just by buying a VPN I can make it look like I'm in Russia or Afghanistan and I'm not even a hacker! if hackers can make it look like they're from North Korea. What's to say it really is North Korea, it's wishful thinking from cold war fanatics who don't want things to end.

Oh and we all know how reliable intelligence agencies are when it comes to this kind of bullshit, considering they so certainly said it was all Saddam Hussein's fault 9/11 happened and they were 100% sure he had nuclear weaponry.

Yep, if NK always barks he never bites, but there are lot of south korean soldiers at the borders who wants to have a calm christmas, i see the release/non-relase of this movie as a disguised response to Kim's barking.

Kim jong ill very ill.

and now sony is doing Ddos attack on file sharing websites,to get there files which were hacked!

I agree with you. It's hard to take anything the government says seriously anymore. Credibility is a precious commodity, and once squandered, hard to regain.

On the other hand, the shoe fits on this one. I believe it was NK, but not because the US gov says so.

So they will be showing the movie in roughly 200 theaters across the USA, down from the original 3000 that they planned. Nothing planned in Canada so far. This has been one big disaster after another for Sony. Especially since it will probably hit online for free any day or hour now.

They're doing a digital on-demand release as well through the major platforms. I agree, they're not going to be making the money they thought they would on this, but you could hardly ask for better publicity.

Hard to say on the publicity, I still think the damage has been done.  As for the digital on demand, LOL! It will be on torrent sites within a few hours for free.

The deadline for ordering the movie from Sony was a couple days ago.  I don't think any theaters in Canada will be showing it.  :(

The only reason I'm at all interested in the movie is because much of it was filmed in Vancouver.  Downloading for free will be just fine.

I dont know what really happened but, I think I'm agree with you.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30599836 It says "Sony realese The Interview online" and also "only available in the US."
I don't know this is true or not because I'm not in US.

It raises an interesting question: can you "pirate" a movie that's released for free? Is it still piracy?

It is not going to be free. It is going to be released in theaters (only ~300 screens) and via youtube, and google rental services. Viewers are going to have to pay ~$6 to rent the movies and ~$15 to buy it

Its on youtube already but for USA only.

Buddy has already found it for free online.  He's watching it now apparently. 

I guess they walked it back from plans a few days ago. Someone quoted an article that said they were planning to release it on Crackle for free.

And its on private torrents now... just saw it this morning The Interview 2014 1080p WEB-DL x264 AAC MerryXmas

I value my time pretty dearly - I'd probably be willing to watch it if Sony paid me ~$500  :P

Yes , I found it on Sony Pictures Youtube Channel but can't seem be able to see it . Changing my IP to USA using a Proxy or VPN won't help me ??.
Anyway , I really don't see why they pulled it out . they are just losing money right ? on Theaters they would earn the amount that they lost during the hack .

Watched it last night. Its a really bad movie.

What I did enjoy was knowing how pissed Kim Jong-dum will be after watching himself cry like a little girl.

Watched it, I am disappointed how Sony handled the entire thing.  First they cancelled it, which I agreed they had to at that point.  There wasn't much they could do if no one was going to show it. 

The thing that makes me upset, is they were going to release it for 100% free on their website, which they said they were going to do.  Then someone from high up must have said they couldn't do that because they were going to lose too much money, well they already lost a lot so who cares.  Anyway just frustrating they released it for money, which now I know a lot of people will only watch this movie because "North Korea" told them they couldn't watch it!

End rant.

Got to admit that after watching it I was like meh it wasn't that good of a movie
Had some funny moments though but your right watching Kim crying was amusing and the tank scene ^^

I don't know why people are hating on the film really, were you really expecting something sophisticated and intricate to piss off a dictator? :P I actually enjoyed it, but then again I have a crude sense of humour, it also takes a lot of balls to make something like that you could actually get asssassinated for.

A crude sense of humor?  More like, if you like gay jokes, you like that movie.  Nothing really crude about it, there were a couple of parts that were pretty good, but overall the movie was slow, and was almost a romantic comedy with Seth Rogen and James Franco

Yep, the man-love was over done.

It would have been a better movie if Franco wasn't in it. I can't stand that guy to begin with and he really sucked in this movie.

Franco sucks, if you push through the first 20 mins it gets better.

I almost shut it off due to the idiot Kelso type guy he plays, but I am glad I finished it.

Fake Kim crying was the best.

Starting to see a pattern here in what people like and dislike, I take it you guys complaining about the man-love jokes are Americans? :P

I feel like this ended up better for Sony because they probably sold more copies than if the movie would have been released as planned. Now people want to see it just to "excercise their freedom of speech".

I am an American yes, I see what you are trying to say, but I don't think any of us are making that point at all.  I am assuming you think we don't like watching gay jokes, as we are uncomfortable with our sexuality.

That has nothing to do with it for me, or from what I read about anyone else.  It was simply overdone, In comedies, what is funny at first isn't funny after the 50th time anymore.  Just my opinion.

Yeah yeah, I'm sure that's what you'll all say in public.

Wow, its time to leave the 20th century man, very few people are homophobic nowadays.  As I type this I am just about to go to lunch with a gay friend of mine.  Just because you read somewhere from a blog that all Americans are pigs and racist and sexist and can't tolerate anything different from them doesn't make it true.  Grow up.

To the ignorant European, Americans are probably just uneducated homophobes who like shooting things. Yee-haw. Anyone who has such a two-dimensional view of a society isn't really worth attempting to correct, as they've already chosen to cling to the safety of stereotypes rather than make the effort to have a nuanced understanding.

lol :D I'm not saying all Americans are like that but you have a lot of them standing up on television and acting like that, not to mention the morons that vote them in and yes, I know about your politics :P It is funny getting you guys riled up about it though, maybe you should be doing more to actively kick those assholes out of government if you don't want people thinking that way about America.

There is nothing more I would rather do in my whole life.  Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible to do that, with the way we have our elections, it is basically, who has the most money wins.  It is simply a popularity contest, and it looks like it will be run that way for quite sometime.

If you call my whole country a bunch of racist sexist morons, how do you not expect me to get riled up?  I may not like everything about my country, but I am very glad to live here and very proud, and I will of course get defensive if you talk bad about it.

I wouldn't get defensive if you said the same about the UK, because there are a lot of pricks here, that said, I get where you're coming from, I think our system is almost worse in a way for the 'democracy' we have because our elections happen every 5 years! Oh and of course we have no legal options of booting out a party we're particularly displeased with.

There are a lot of pricks every where you go, it isn't going to stop.  But America is none the less my home in a way of speaking.  I may not agree with everything that happens here but I am going to defend it no matter what.  It is who I am today because of America, so I do take generally insulting a whole Country as an insult even if you are only meaning of the pricks in America, say that then.

Yeah, its pretty hard to find a good political system that actually works, so I see everything as having at least some minor flaws.

Sorry for the "man-love" reference.

I'm not a Yank. I'm sorry if I don't find a distasteful attempt at comedy funny.  Don't hate.

I just watch that movie today , and yes funny story 
Its same like other parody movie ,example scary movie .I think there is no problem about that.
The only problem is he have nukes ...  :P