Walter said:I see Sony taking a ton of flak over this, but their decision to cancel its release came after national theater chains refused to play it. That kind of forces Sony's hand at that point.
Walter said:Then again, a few minutes later, it was confirmed that they had no plays to release it on video-on-demand, either. Soooo.... yeah.
Griffith said:Yeah, but they basically asked them to not show it
The whole thing liability run amok and deeply troubling on a few levels if the subject itself wasn't so incredibly stupid.
Johnstantine said:It's a pretty big loss if you ask me. Just goes to show that with the threat of violence, anyone can get their way.
Johnstantine said:Same thing happened with South Park censoring those two episodes that didn't even have Muhammed in them.
Johnstantine said:Just goes to show that with the threat of violence, anyone can get their way.
Griffith said:Yeah, I feel the same way, not so much about the threat of violence, but how empty yet effective it was, like the Internet tough guy routine was actually taken seriously
Aazealh said:Oh it's not empty, that's what hurts. They've got a lot of dirt on Sony and people involved with them, probably on the top execs and all that. This is just the beginning (though it's actually started years ago) of a new era where people learn that the Internet is actually serious business. It's a good time to major in cybersecurity.
IncantatioN said:Disappointed, it sets a bad precedent. A few friends and I were looking forward to watching it the weekend after Christmas (http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=8350.msg229384#msg229384).
I hope someone somewhere puts it out, now or in the future, doesn't matter. It's at a 9.1 (user rating) on IMDB haha!
Griffith said:That's the real threat for sure, and they already showed it was real and that's likely what really scared off Sony and those theater chains, but the appearance that anonymous and vague Internet threats can shut down whats likely a hundred million dollar operation is worrisome (not because theyre worried about people, but their liability if sonething DOES hapoen ). Obviously, this is a unique situation and Sony already got burned, but now it's going to take that much less to intimidate smaller fish. You can already tell the rest of Hollywood is scared silent and shitless, canceling every NK related movie in the pipeline.
Unfortunately, it's not supposed to be very good, so it might make for a better rallying point if left unseen.
Still, I feel like it needs to be released, and for money. Even if they dump it on the Internet for free out of spite the bad guys still win because the point is as much about business as freedom of expression, as unromantic as that is (in this case the two go hand in hand). The best case scenario was the publicity from this actually boosting business, but that's not going to happen as things stand.
Griffith said:That's the real threat for sure, and they already showed it was real and that's likely what really scared off Sony and those theater chains, but the appearance that anonymous and vague Internet threats can shut down whats likely a hundred million dollar operation is worrisome (not because theyre worried about people, but their liability if sonething DOES hapoen ). Obviously, this is a unique situation and Sony already got burned, but now it's going to take that much less to intimidate smaller fish.
Griffith said:We're basically running with tail between legs away from some phony bomb threat on the Internet that may or may not be from North Korea, a regime we've previously never taken seriously, all out of pathetic fear of something bad actually happening
Aazealh said:The problem is that this isn't actually such a unique event aside from how it's being mediatized to the extreme. A lot of companies, big and small, have faulty security procedures that leave them open to various attacks like this one. As an example, Walter actually tipped me yesterday that the ICANN was hacked in late November. It's the authority that regulates top-level domains on the Internet. All user information for all registrars and registries was stolen, including names, addresses, logins and passwords (passwords were hashed, but that's not good enough), emails, etc. With the growing reliance on smart grids and the foretold advent of the Internet of Things, it's only a matter of time before something BIG happens, something that'll impact a lot of people in a big way.
Walter said:But I dunno, I think this particular case is quite special because North Korea's alleged involvement in it. State-sanctioned cyberwarfare is certainly nothing new, but mix in a huge corporation and turn the political climate up to simmer, and suddenly this all got more interesting. To play the dramatic angle up a bit, we're now a stone's throw away from a science-fiction vision of the future, where the fate of nations hangs on business dealings and cyberwarfare.
Walter said:Of course, this huge spat was over a comedy. But like I alluded to earlier in the thread, what about when it's something serious...?
IncantatioN said:
TheBranded1 said:and a leaked small clip of kim jung-un demise has popped up
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/the-kim-jong-un-death-scene-from-the-interview-has-leaked/in
Shortly after Deadline revealed that New Regency had scrapped a project he planned to direct with Steve Carell with a North Korea setting, director Gore Verbinski has expressed his frustration that his movie was a casualty of the unprecedented hack attack and terrorist threat that caused Sony to cancel the theatrical release of The Interview after theater chains refused to show it. Word I’m getting from Fox is they hadn’t committed to fund the film, which Verbinski informed me was called Pyongyang, but they did decline to distribute it in the wake of recent events but didn’t stand in the way of it going elsewhere. Clearly that wasn’t going to happen.
Here is the statement by Verbinski, who launched the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and most recently directed The Lone Ranger and the Oscar winning Rango:
Re: Pyongyang
Getting the facts straight:
Yesterday, I was told by New Regency and Fox that Fox will no longer be distributing the film. Prior to that, the film was green lit and fully funded by New Regency with Fox distributing. I have been told in no uncertain words that based on the situation at Sony, Fox has now decided to not distribute the film. Without a distributor, New Regency was forced to shut the film down.
My thoughts:
I find it ironic that fear is eliminating the possibility to tell stories that depict our ability to overcome fear.
Gore Verbinski
Sony Pictures Entertainment today announced that The Interview will have a limited theatrical release in the United States on Christmas Day.
“We have never given up on releasing The Interview and we’re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Entertainment. “At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience.”
“I want to thank our talent on The Interview and our employees, who have worked tirelessly through the many challenges we have all faced over the last month. While we hope this is only the first step of the film’s release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech.”