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> Sony Entertainment has consequently decided to cancel the film’s theatrical release, originally scheduled for 25 December.

Not a single bone in your back Sony. I was actually really looking forward to seeing the movie.

Regal, Cinemark, Cineplex and AMC made this decision for Sony.
Cinemark was sued in the wake of the Aurora shooting, and their defense has been there was no way for them to expect something like that to happen. In this case, the threats they've received would prevent that defense, and the theaters don't want to take on that liability.
If this is true the legal system is absurd and we might as well hand the whole shebang over to Putin.
If this is a trend, then there is a new form of censorship arising.

Will we end up where anyone that dislikes a message in a movie can make some random threats and have it pulled by liability fearing theaters?

The major movie theatres decided not to show it - they're the ones to blame here, not Sony.

What Sony needs to do now is just release it online. If they're really ballsy, for free on Youtube (with ads, maybe).

> Guardians of Peace, the group claiming responsibility for the Sony hack, issued a sharp warning this week promising a “bitter fate” for viewers of the movie and warning others “to keep yourself distant from the places at that time.”

> “The world will be full of fear,” they said in an anonymous online posting. “Remember the 11th of September 2001.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/top-movie-the...

I don't think it's fair to place blame either on Sony or the cinemas for this.

Obviously bowing to intimidation like this sets a dangerous precedent, but at the same time it would be absolutely terrible if these threats were ignored and something similar to the Aurora shootings happened as a result.

At a certain point you have to take a step back and acknowledge that it's just a dumb comedy movie - definitely not something worth potential loss of life.

Perhaps Sony should just "leak" the film.

First they came for the dumb comedy movies, and I did not speak out...
I didn't want to see it but now I do. I imagine this is more PR than spinelessness.
Sort it out BBC. British people (without VPNs) can't view this link.

"We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com."

Wow. That's just borderline pathetic. I'm guessing it has something to do with the law that governs them from advertising to people in the UK... they're not allowed to make money off you?
Yeh, they conveniently ignore that fact that if it wasn't for the license fee that content wouldn't exist
When I first saw this, I stopped paying for TV license. guess what, I still can't see the content!
Snippets fta "With prosthetic noses and drunken antics, Westerners are portrayed in the most unflattering light". So? Western movies also do parodies.

"perhaps the reaction to The Interview really is an expression of fear from the North Korean authorities... [that] the picture of their perfect state will gradually begin to be eroded." Blah blah. Run of the mill decry of North Korea propaganda, and supermarket psychology analysis of mentality. Blah. The same propaganda methods that are used in the the rest of the world including the west.