The terrorists have won!

[DenverChief]

Earlier Wednesday, Sony pulled the film, which depicts the assassination of North Korea's leader, following a threat that people should avoid going to theaters where "The Interview" is playing. The country's major theater companies had said they had decided to postpone or cancel next week's showing.
"In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film "The Interview," we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release," Sony said in its first statement on the matter.
"Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. ... We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie. ... We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome."

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Did Barbara Walters read it to you?

she always did when i was younger

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I can't verify that Sony has a "vault" containing original IP but there's a vault at Universal for certain.

I can verify that on this film they stored at least one of the two sets of LTOs that contain the raw footage. I have no clue what their backup or storage looks like after that though.

[ShowtimeSBMVP]

BREAKING: Obama: Sony "made a mistake" in canceling Christmas release of film in face of NKorea threats.

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 19, 2014

“We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing #censorship here in the U.S.” –#Obama pic.twitter.com/eqRxn249NQ

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 19, 2014

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by JD10367

Sony doesn't give a shit about terrorism. They give a shit about money. They wouldn't pony up for police details at theaters and they were afraid of the lawsuits if something happened.

Nothing would have happened. We know for 100% certain that the threat was empty. No security would have been needed. Sony and the theaters are all a bunch of gutless reeruns.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan

BREAKING: Obama: Sony "made a mistake" in canceling Christmas release of film in face of NKorea threats.

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 19, 2014

“We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing #censorship here in the U.S.” –#Obama pic.twitter.com/eqRxn249NQ

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 19, 2014

Obama got something right. End of days!

[alnorth]

A small cynical part of me is wondering if Sony is trying to pull a "Cartmanland" move here.

Its sort of understandable why they would pull the christmas release, if the theaters don't want it that weekend fine, you should be angry at the theaters for that, but I think the problem people have with Sony is not at least going VOD or saying that they will delay the theatrical release into next month.

Perhaps they are making a big show of this movie being shut down, never ever released on any format, and none of us can ever see it, then when the hype and demand reaches a critical point they go "OK, here you go" and make money.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by Just Passin' By

Obama got something right. End of days!

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

[Aries Walker]

Cracked has a pretty good article on this today. The title is, "Why Pulling The Interview Proves We've All Become Cowards," if that gives you any idea of the article's thesis.

http://www.cracked.com/article_22076...e-cowards.html

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by alnorth

A small cynical part of me is wondering if Sony is trying to pull a "Cartmanland" move here.

Its sort of understandable why they would pull the christmas release, if the theaters don't want it that weekend fine, you should be angry at the theaters for that, but I think the problem people have with Sony is not at least going VOD or saying that they will delay the theatrical release into next month.

Perhaps they are making a big show of this movie being shut down, never ever released on any format, and none of us can ever see it, then when the hype and demand reaches a critical point they go "OK, here you go" and make money.

Or maybe the movie is so epically bad that they're sending Kim Jong-Un a fruitcake and a case of beer and saying, "Thank you thank you thank you," so they have an excuse to not release it.

[underEJ]

Dane is pretty much dead on. There is no way Sony can risk releasing this for business reasons, right now anyway, and American freedom has nothing to do with it.

Every entertainment company on the planet is trying to move into the lucrative, massive and still rapidly growing Chinese film market. It is the single most important movie release market in the world for the next decade or two. They are currently sifting through offers from entertainment companies to decide who gets in. This is tens of billions of dollars of future revenue. China is the support structure for NK, and releasing it could cost Sony all of their Chinese releases even if that threat is never made by China (very few western films get released in China per year.)

Content is already adapted to be more appealing to that market and its censors, and most films that get released without any cuts or changes are family fare that wouldn't tend to offend anyone. Most of the others get cut in some way to be selected for release.

Sony has alot more to lose than the costs of production on one movie. Celebrities can bemoan all they want, it is a business decision by a Japanese company to cut losses.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

Obama is speaking in hind-sight anyway. Easy to say now. If he was really concerned, he would have initiated that conversation, starting with the Govt of Japan.

Sony is doing this for themselves only. They are full aware of what was stolen and what can be released. Damage control.

[digger]

Originally Posted by Just Passin' By

Obama got something right. End of days!

When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

[Rain Man]

The next chapter in this story is the revenge chapter. North Korea hacked into a company and cost them a lot of money and embarrassed the U.S. Obama has sworn revenge.

Our task now is to figure out how to get revenge against a country that has no Internet, few computers, not many cars, no major media, and not a whole lot of food. Economic sanctions won't really work since we don't have economic contact and they don't really have an economy. And we probably should get revenge without screwing over the brainwashed population.

So what's the plan?

Off the top of my head, I wonder about the following:

Option 1. Airdrop a whole bunch of phones with free internet across North Korea.

Option 2. Arrange some drone to knock the engine out of every vehicle that Kim Jong Un gets into.

Option 3. Air Seth Rogan movies on giant screens at the border, destroying the will of the North Korean soldiers to live.

Option 4. Execute Dennis Rodman

Option 5. Use an SR-71 to skywrite an unflattering statement about Kim Jong-Un across the North Korean sky.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

The next chapter in this story is the revenge chapter. North Korea hacked into a company and cost them a lot of money and embarrassed the U.S. Obama has sworn revenge.

Our task now is to figure out how to get revenge against a country that has no Internet, few computers, not many cars, no major media, and not a whole lot of food. Economic sanctions won't really work since we don't have economic contact and they don't really have an economy. And we probably should get revenge without screwing over the brainwashed population.

So what's the plan?

Off the top of my head, I wonder about the following:

Option 1. Airdrop a whole bunch of phones with free internet across North Korea.

Option 2. Arrange some drone to knock the engine out of every vehicle that Kim Jong Un gets into.

Option 3. Air Seth Rogan movies on giant screens at the border, destroying the will of the North Korean soldiers to live.

Option 4. Execute Dennis Rodman

Option 5. Use an SR-71 to skywrite an unflattering statement about Kim Jong-Un across the North Korean sky.

What's the status of those nuclear talks? Nix that shit.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by eDave

What's the status of those nuclear talks? Nix that shit.

Stuxnet! Here, boy! Here! Now, sic 'em!