There’s been no shortage of opinions surrounding Sony Pictures’ decision to cancel the release of the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy THE INTERVIEW, as the result of cyber terrorism threats, but now The President of the United States has weighed in on it as well. Barack Obama gave his end of the year address today, and in it addressed the Sony hack and their choice to scrap the film. Select bits of his speech included him saying “Yes, I think they made a mistake. We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can impose censorship here in the United States.” and even saying “I wish they had spoken to me first, I would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you’re intimidated…”
The President also alluded to the idea that we will retaliate with these hackers. His officials have even called this a “National Security Issue”, and have stated it will be dealt with. Wasting no time, Sony responded to the President’s comments, with CEO Michael Lynton stating the following:
“Sony Pictures Entertainment is and always has been strongly committed to the First Amendment. For more than three weeks, despite brutal intrusions into our company and our employees’ personal lives, we maintained our focus on one goal: getting the film The Interview released. Free expression should never be suppressed by threats and extortion.
The decision not to move forward with the December 25 theatrical release of The Interview was made as a result of the majority of the nation’s theater owners choosing not to screen the film. This was their decision.
Let us be clear – the only decision that we have made with respect to release of the film was not to release it on Christmas Day in theaters, after the theater owners declined to show it. Without theaters, we could not release it in the theaters on Christmas Day. We had no choice.
After that decision, we immediately began actively surveying alternatives to enable us to release the movie on a different platform. It is still our hope that anyone who wants to see this movie will get the opportunity to do so.”
Despite their earlier statements saying there were no plans to release THE INTERVIEW on any VOD or online/home video format, Sony is now saying they’re committed to getting the movie seen by audiences. More as it develops. What are your thoughts on all this? Did Sony do the right thing, or is this truly setting a horrible precedent? Let us know in the comments below.
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
It seems likes yesterday will be remembered when we took one step forward back and two back. Yay, we can go Cuba…maybe. We let another nation censor ourselves and give up one of our “unalienable rights”. I’m just hoping we will take the right steps moving forward & Obama can correct this!
Sony is full of crap. They offered theaters the chance to not honor their previous agreement and show THE INTERVIEW. Other studios pressured the theater chains. Sony pulled the movie. Then said they were shelving it. Sony made these 3 decisions within roughly 24 hours. There are independent theaters that wanted to show it anyway, but Sony refused. If they were committed to release they would have released it. They didn’t have to give theaters an out. If theater chains refused, they could have gone with independents, who would have made a fortune. And then I bet the chains would have asked to run it. Because the threats were a bunch of hot air.