Sony has confirmed that they have canceled The Interview’s theatrical release, and have stated that there are no future plans to release the film. Find out why this means fans may never get a chance to watch the movie.
Had you asked anyone a month ago as to whether The Interview would ever be pulled from theaters due to the Sony hack, they’d probably have laughed hysterically. Now, no one is laughing, as The Interview has essentially been canceled in terms of any sort of release. This is incredibly surprising, considering Sony has also said that there are no plans to release the film online or video-on-demand.
Listening to interviews with Seth Rogen and James Franco, they seemed so excited about fans to see the film, despite the controversy, due to the fact that they truly seem to believe in the comedies that they make. Now it’s very possible that fans may never get a chance to watch this film at all due to Sony reportedly deciding to file for the insurance that all major films have when they’re being created to prevent multi-million dollar losses in instances such as this.
You may be thinking that it will leak online somehow, as most films do, but this is an entirely different story now. Because of the cyber attack, there has been so much more private information illegally obtained, that a movie being released seems to be the least of Sony’s concerns, but censoring a film because of a reported terrorist plot is beyond shocking.
You’ve heard this already most likely, but this sets a terrible precedent for our future. What movie is up next to be pulled from theaters because some random person says they’ll blow up a theater if they show a specific film?
We often forget that we’re incredibly lucky, in that we can make and go see any types of movies we want to – until some hackers say that they’ll attack any theater which shows a specific movie. Of course, it’s impossible for these anonymous hackers to ever attack every theater in the U.S., but because of the potential threat, it caused all of the major theaters to pull the film.
The main reason behind this is liability. Sony originally told theater chains that it was up to them to decide if they wanted to show the movie or not, this was an attempt to shift the liability from Sony to the theater companies. Once this happened, it was much harder for the theaters to hold strong and keep the movie in their theaters.
Sony made a mistake there, because had they said they’re not budging, the theaters probably would have kept the movie and most likely nothing would have happened (in terms of an attack). The hackers responsible for illegally obtaining private information from Sony’s servers are still going to release any and all information they’ve obtained, so pulling the movie does nothing for Sony or the theaters except keep both from being liable for any potential terrorist attacks in the eyes of the public.
The fact is, no one can know if these people were even capable of an attack, despite Homeland Security and the FBI saying that the threats are entirely unfounded. The problem is, if something did happen, theater chains and Sony could be legally responsible for anything that happened because they didn’t take action once a threat was made.
This is essentially censorship, which happens all over the world, especially in North Korea, where these cyber attacks reportedly originated. If their government doesn’t think something should be seen by their people, they will block it from being seen. While you may be thinking that’s totally different than what is happening here, it isn’t.
Right now, we’re being blocked from seeing a movie. The reasons aren’t important, as we’re supposed to be allowed to watch anything we choose to watch, but that right has been taken away from us (for now). Will we be able to see The Interview at some point, it’s possible, but not likely considering Sony is afraid of what might come from its release.
We hope that Sony does end up releasing The Interview in some format, as many fans were excited about the Seth Rogen comedy, but more importantly because we shouldn’t let others decide what we should or shouldn’t watch. But for now, it looks as though Sony will be filing for insurance on the film, which would legally prevent them from releasing the film in any format. They would write the film off financially, and the insurance company would pay them the reported $40+ million film budget, plus advertising costs which had risen to $20 million.
As bizarre as it sounds, the only way we could ever see The Interview is if someone obtains the film illegally from the data that the hackers have obtained from Sony. So, while the hackers’ intentions were to prevent us from seeing this movie, they may end up being the entire reason it leaks online.
Are you disappointed that The Interview will most likely not be available to watch in the future? Let us know what you think about Sony officially pulling The Interview from its Christmas release.
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