Cancelled Interview

Looks like the cyberterrorists have won.

Sony will not be releasing the upcoming comedy The Interview, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, as planned, in theaters...this Christmas, anymore.

Unless you have been living under a rock with no Wi-Fi, Sony has been under attack for about a month now, by Guardians of Peace, a group that wants nothing more than to destroy the company. Lots and lots of embarrassing information has made its way to the Internet, as we all know, and popular wisdom has chucked this action to the group not having taken to the subject matter of the comedy.

See, The Interview has the Pineapple Express co-stars playing a producer-and-trash-TV-talking head duo, right. After they land an interview with Kim Jong-un, the CIA recruits them to “take him out.” Meaning to assassinate the North Koren dictator.

Which, because of who these characters are, results in many a ridikolous situation.

Guardians of Peace clearly did not see the funny in the material and, like I said, has made it its mission to club Sony at the knees. They have released documents that shine a light on e-conversations between studio heads not meant for public consumption and info on everything from what pseudonyms actors use to check into hotels to how much they (and other staff) make vis-à-vis one another (GTS).

More alarmingly, they also recently invoked the 9/11 attacks to discourage the showing of The Interview and the patronage of audiences.

Which is why Sony has said uncle.

Crazy, huh?

Photo: Fandango.com.

Update 1: My, my.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, North Korea definitely was behind the Sony hack, which, much to the chagrin of Hollywood power players including Judd Apatow and Aaron Sorkin, led to the studio pulling the movie.

Yes. The Interview is dead. It will not be seeing the light of day on DVD, On Demand, or anything any time soon.

Apatow thinks the move is a disgrace, while Sorkin finds it to be an affront to free speech with much-larger repercussions. IMHO, both have valid points, but I think that when someone is overtly threatening the safety of a people, you gotta err on the side of safety, no?

Update 2: Another big-screen casualty of the hack? The Steve Carell-led North Korea-set thriller that director Gore Verbinski was set to helm (not for Sony).