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Well this is an odd day in the world of movies. The hack of Sony Pictures has led to some interesting revelations, which we’ve avoided talking about on here, as it’s our personal belief that the private information being leaked shouldn’t be shared just because it’s there. Imagine your private emails and personal information got hacked, and several different media outlets decided to share it for the whole world to see… probably wouldn’t feel too good. Sony and its employees must be in hell right now, so we’d never want to feed into that. What we’re posting here was sent to us directly by the studio. The same group who claimed responsibility for the Sony hack sent out a major threat this week, claiming anyone who attended any showings of THE INTERVIEW (the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy satire about two guys tasked to kill North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un) or any theaters that showed it would become the victim of major terrorism. The cyberterrorists (ironically calling themselves “The Guardians of Peace”) even made comparisons on their intended actions being similar to the horror of the 9/11 attacks. What’s most interesting is that North Korea has claimed no involvement with the hacks, so why someone not connected with that country would make these kinds of threats over a movie is pretty hard to figure out. The result of these harsh threats was Sony Pictures telling theaters they could choose to not show the movie if they were worried about possible retaliation. Multiple major theater chains responded today telling Sony they would not risk showing the movie, and now Sony has made it official – THE INTERVIEW has been scrapped. You can read their full statement below.

There’s no word at this time what will ultimately happen with the film, perhaps a VOD or home video release could be the solution, though it may just end up on a shelf for a while. The sad part about this is the statement it ultimately makes, in that an anonymous hacker group now has the power to stop a movie from being released, simply by making threats. This could be some teenager in Russia for all we know. As for THE INTERVIEW, whether or not the movie was any good or even funny is inconsequential. Movies are very hard work and there’s a lot of money going into them, so for someone to come along and ruin those efforts out of spite or whatever the case may be, it’s just a horrible scenario. How many times could this happen again, and will other studios cave in to a threat like this if it does? Sound off in our comments, we want to know what you all think about this. Regardless of how you feel about the film or the situation with the hack, this does not bode well for the entertainment industry at all.

Oh, and in case we all forgot, in 1988 THE NAKED GUN opened with a scene in which Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) beats up Arafat, Khadafi, Khomeini, Idi Amin and Gorbachev… and we all laughed and thought it was fun. Then again, that was before the internet:

In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theater-goers.

Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. 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. 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.

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