'The Interview' NY Premiere Canceled, Might Be Pulled From Theaters
The Sony hacking scandal has just taken another hostile turn, due to the threat of violence by the hackers responsible for all this drama.
The New York premiere of The Interview, scheduled to take place at Landmark's Sunshine Cinema in New York's Lower East Side on Thursday, has been canceled. This is due to the latest threat from the Sony hackers, who are now invoking 9/11 when warning what will happen to any theater that plays The Interview. The threat is unsurprisingly vague, since it's would-be terrorism, after all. Vagueness is totally their jam.
The Interview, a comedy centered on a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un, has been a magnet for controversy in recent weeks. The NY premiere's cancellation comes hot on the heels of stars Seth Rogen and James Franco canceling all media appearances promoting the film (although they were able to sneak in a candid radio interview with Entertainment Weekly). The Los Angeles premiere of the film went off without a hitch, although it premiered without the customary media junket, as no interviews were permitted (lending a sort of irony to the proceedings).
Things are already getting worse for the movie, as cinema franchises are pulling the film altogether. Carmike Cinemas is the first national chain to opt out of showing the film, taking Sony up on its offer to support any theaters choosing not to show the movie. California’s ArcLight Cinemas is also rumored to be considering pulling The Interview. If other theaters follow, this could be a death knell for a film, which has no chance of benefiting from all this controversial press without theaters to actually screen it.
Perhaps this will necessitate a straight-to-video release of some sort. Or a video-on-demand release, maybe? I mean, it's not as if the hackers can bomb the homes of every single person who buys a copy, although they're probably not above simply holding all of America responsible. If nothing else, this fiasco begs the question of why anyone at Sony thought a comedy about the assassination of an actual, real-world dictator would be a good idea. Just fictionalize that stuff, man! Even if it's obviously Kim Jong-un. Plausible deniability is where it's at! Because being the year's most controversial film doesn't amount to much if it stays locked in a Sony vault.
Credit: Columbia Pictures