Sony Pictures and Major U.S. Theater Chains Succumb to Hacker Demands and Cancel Christmas Release of “The Interview”
So, the “Guardians of Peace” (i.e. ideologically misguided, butthurt hackers who waste their talents over superfluous nonsense rather than actually making the world a better, more peaceful place) got what they wanted.
Sony Pictures and top U.S. theater chains have canceled the Christmas release of The Interview in fear that some sort of attack might befall any theaters or theater goers that would screen the movie.
Given how much criticism of the government, society, and more that Americans engage in every split second, it’s more than odd that the limits to our free speech and expression here in America are coming from threats leveled by hackers who can’t correctly use whatever translation app they’re using as opposed to any sort of shadow government.
If you’re wondering if this has set a precedent in terms of pre-emptive censorship by studios fueled out of a fear, look no further than reports of Steve Carell’s latest project Pyongyang getting canceled.
There has been preliminary talks of releasing The Interview through VOD, but nothing has been made official.
What is official is the end of this statement from Sony regarding the release’s cancellation,“We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.”
Canceling the release of a movie out of fear is apparently what "standing by our filmmakers and their right to free expression” means.
As the idea, or at least part of it, was to instill cowardice against depicting North Korea in a negative light here in America, we’d hope to see sketches, web videos, anything that aren’t afraid of what Sony, Regal, AMC, and more were afraid to do soon.