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Thu 18 Dec, 2014 08:05 am
Sony kowtows to the criminal hackers and pulls the theatrical and VOD release of the highly anticipated comedy, The Interview (2014).
Sony Scraps ‘The Interview’ Release: ‘We Have Decided Not to Move Forward’
http://www.thewrap.com/sony-scraps-the-interview-release-we-have-decided-not-to-move-forward/
Hollywood Outraged at Sony’s Decision to Dump ‘The Interview’
http://www.thewrap.com/hollywood-creative-community-outraged-at-sonys-decision-to-dump-the-interview/
@tsarstepan,
Yep. Seen all this on our morning news.
Disgraceful behaviour. The Japanese CEO is acting like a coward and without honour, probably the two worst things he could do in life.
I bet he is having some inner conflict, to say the least.
They need to take a leaf out of this hairdresser's book.
Quote:The salon put up the poster on 9 April and the next day two men claiming to be officials from the North Korean embassy visited the salon and demanded to meet the manager, Mo Nabbach.
Karim Nabbach said: "We put up posters for an offer for men's hair cuts through the month of April. Obviously in the current news there has been this story that North Korean men are only allowed one haircut.
"We didn't realise but the North Korean embassy is a 10-minute walk from the salon. The next day we had North Korean officials pop into the salon asking to speak to the manager.
"He said 'listen this isn't North Korea, this is England, we live in a democracy so I'm afraid you're going to have to get out of my salon'."
The manager later informed the police about the visit by the North Koreans and he was told the embassy had also contacted officers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27038723
Well at least, hopefully Into The Woods (2014) will get a slightly higher box office intake now that it's Christmas competition is no more. Not that they really share the same target audience.
The Interview (2014) being a stoner comedy, albeit a very ambitious high-browish stoner comedy vs Into the Woods (2014), a Sondheim bittersweet comic musical.
@tsarstepan,
A few film reviewers who were commenting on this (on Canajun radio) yesterday said that The Interview was such a bad film that this is the only chance the film has to make any money in the long run. They sort of hinted this was a marketing strategy.
Now everyone will want to go see it to show how bold they are.
@tsarstepan,
I'm very surprised by this. I'm sure the movie itself is awful, but for Sony to cave like this... How do we protect free speech in this country when we we're too preoccupied with conforming to unreasonable demands from other countries?
And last I checked, Kim Jong Un was
not our leader.
@tsarstepan,
Sony is a commercial company that is organized to make money. They have no obligation to put out any particular movie. Nor do they have any obligation to be courageous.
I don see why anyone should be upset with Sony. They don´t defend freedom or stand up to tyranny. They make movies and sell stuff.
@maxdancona,
You make for a horrible or at least an undereducated capitalist Maxiepad. You're advocating they take a complete loss of countless tens of millions of dollars on production and casting costs as well as tens of millions from its subsequent ad/marketing campaign (prior to its free press that came along with the scandal). To flush a few hundred million dollars is a sound money making decision?
And yes. I am aware that Sony has megainsurance coverage for the worst case scenarios such as this. It's just plain bad business. This clearly is another topic you don't know anything about.
@tsarstepan,
So they made what you consider to be a bad business decision. So what?
I am agreeing with both ehBeth and Max.
Sony is not a political entity. It is a business.
What if the movie was put out, and tragedy did strike? Then Sony would be blamed for causing deaths. Families of victims would say their loved ones had no idea something was going on, and were innocently killed for trying to enjoy a movie.
Also, as ehBeth said, this is building up hype for when the movie does release.
If the movie did release now (and frankly I know nothing about the film) I sure wouldn't go see it. Chances are small you say? Not willing to risk my life for it, thanks.
@maxdancona,
maxdancona wrote:
So they made what you consider to be a bad business decision. So what?
Exactly.
So what?
Do you own stock in Sony?
A (potentially) bad business decision equals being a coward?
@chai2,
Sony's stock isn't exactly doing well.
Quote:The electronics and entertainment company’s stock price has fallen 7% since December 5th. Sony will take a huge loss on the film which cost $44 million to produce. We know the exact cost of the film because the movie’s budget was part of the cache of leaked documents which also showed that star Seth Rogen was paid $8.4 million for his work on the film while costar James Franco earned $6.5 million.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2014/12/17/sony-decides-not-to-release-the-interview/
Sony, the company with a heart.
They can review the situation, and realize, these weren't just bold movie goers, they CARED about them getting blown up. Not like the schmucks who just came to see the movie.
Think of the publicity!
@izzythepush,
IBM stock isn't doing very well either.
@izzythepush,
izzythepush wrote:
Sony's stock isn't exactly doing well.
Quote:The electronics and entertainment company’s stock price has fallen 7% since December 5th. Sony will take a huge loss on the film which cost $44 million to produce. We know the exact cost of the film because the movie’s budget was part of the cache of leaked documents which also showed that star Seth Rogen was paid $8.4 million for his work on the film while costar James Franco earned $6.5 million.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2014/12/17/sony-decides-not-to-release-the-interview/
Again, so?
If sony releases the movie, and some people do get killed, are the families going to care about Sony's stock?
Are Sony shareholders going to stand up and say the company made the right decision? One that ended up costing lives?
Sony is not a government. It's not it's place to play the hero.
That's the end of any investigative journalism into anything remotely related to North Korea.
Now they know that they can stop major corporations in their tracks just by threats and intimidation, Kim Sung Blue can do pretty much what he likes.
I tell you now that they had a lot more hacked email and confidential stuff in the background to make this happen.
Isis and others will take massive heart from this, and no doubt adopt the same tactics if at all possible.
I'll tell you another thing as well. If this was a Brit firm (or most European countries, plus Oz) then they would have carried on regardless, purely out of principle, and I for one would have made a point to queue and see the film, just to make the point.
Bugger that for a lark, some fat little demonic ponce five thousand miles away, telling me what to do.
@Lordyaswas,
PS.....Two or three weeks ago, I bought a Sony Bravia Smart TV.
If I'd have known what a bunch of spineless shits the bosses were, I'd have bought another make.
Some of you seem to think that Sony is going to lose money on this picture by what it is doing.
I don't see that at all.
There is no rule that says they cannot release it at a future date...and as has been noted, the publicity it is getting as a result of all this may make it a much bigger grossing picture than if it were released right now. (Make no mistake about it...in that business, there IS NO SUCH THING as BAD publicity.)
This may well be a very sound business decision.
It might also be a horrible one.
Only time will tell.
As for the political implications...(unfortunately) Sony has absolutely no obligations in that area...just as (unfortunately) the media has no obligations on how they are handling this.
@Lordyaswas,
Lordyaswas wrote:I'll tell you another thing as well. If this was a Brit firm (or most European countries, plus Oz) then they would have carried on regardless, purely out of principle, and I for one would have made a point to queue and see the film, just to make the point.
Or an American firm even. Sony is Japanese.
@tsarstepan,
it's not as if crap movies haven't been pulled from release before
this just happens to be a crap movie every chest-thumper is now going to want to see
Robert Reich has posted that he thinks it should be released live streaming and every American should make a point to watch it
I'm sure some fine money-making tie-ins are already in the pipeline
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