Sony film "The Interview" canceled due to North Korean threats

[DerMißingno]

Sony canceled the December 25 release of the film "The Interview" due to a cyber attack and threats on theaters allegedly originating from North Korea. The film is about two American reporters who are given the mission of assassinating Kim Jong Un after being allowed to interview him in North Korea.

BBC News - Sony cancels The Interview release amid threats

 

[CrackFox]

I'm glad they've gone ahead and cancelled it. It's brought about way more trouble than any movie is worth. Especially one that stars Seth Rogen.

 

[Osprey]

Oh, yay. Now we're letting other countries tell us what we can and cannot watch? Submitting to terrorists? Lovely.

 

[Hector]

Treating Kim Jong Un and North Korea as anything other than the big fat joke that they are is letting them win. Eff that.

 

[dig]

Whilst I understand why they'd want to pull it, and let's be honest they'll just release it when the threats have died down, I just don't think that anyone would take North Korea's threats to heart. I'd understand not releasing it in South Korea, but realistically NK aren't going to be bale to carry out an attack on the west.

 

[DerMißingno]

It might be important to note that Sony is a Japanese company, and Japan is pretty high on North Korea's hit list.

 

[zoroarctic]

I'm surprised Sony thought the movie was a good idea to begin with.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

Many movies, Die Another Day, Team America, the remake of Red Dawn, and other movies have North Korea as the bad guys, and nobody bats an eye. Many internet memes are made about North Korea, with an entire Tumblr blog about Kim looking at things, and nobody bats an eye. But a comedy film about two guys trying to assassinate Kim Jong-Un is made, and everybody loses their minds.

Lately, numerous people have been criticizing Sony, saying that the removal of the movie from theaters is a violation of freedom of speech and expression, and to an extent, The cancellation of The Interview simply because a leader of another country said so is something that is blocking freedom of expression. This is making people think that America is becoming JUST LIKE North Korea, as this is what North Korea wants, even if you cancel the movie, all North Korea wants to do is act like a typical Internet troll and get all the so-called "American imperialists" pissed off at them. This is what they wanted, to see our reactions and laugh at us to their amusement. They WANT America to die, and even if they didn't bomb theaters, they have already won. George Clooney in particular has called out on Sony's decision, saying they shouldn't have backed down to the hackers, creating a petition that was ultimately never signed by anyone. What he says in his interview is right, as this is a threat to creative expression and liberty, and we're letting the enemy win.

Let's face it, North Korea is pathetic if they are wanting to perform terror attacks on theaters, besides, they've made threats like this before and then they did nothing afterwards. This is part of the "Juche Cycle" as one may call it: Someone criticizes North Korea, they make a threat, then do nothing (or something pointless), the UN puts sanctions on them because of it, and then North Korea responds by either performing an underground nuclear test or launching rockets over the Sea of Japan in hopes they will hit Japan or something; then the cycle repeats a few months later. This has happened ever since Kim Jong-Un got into power, and if anything it seems like a desperate attempt for attention to remain relevant in the world. North Korea is always threatening war with the US or someone, performing actions sinking South Korean ships and shooting missiles over peoples heads just to get attention, like a child who simply wants more dessert at the dinner table.

Maybe it's because their country is now poor after the Soviet Union collapsed, though that may be because they spend more money on military and weapons over maintaining infrastructure because they literately have a "Military First" policy that puts military above all else, which is the same kind of policy that the Nazis had, and that's why their people starve is because they rely more on wanting to make a military large enough to destroy the so-called "American imperialists" over anything else. That's right, North Korea is obsessed with war and killing Americans more than anything else. This is why everyone hates North Korea and why they always fail. They have caused everyone to hate them, they will make a threat and never perform the actions of said threat, and they fail every time.

I mean really, it's a movie, it's harmless, and they act like it's an attack because they think their country deserves better when it's actions speak louder than words. You're letting terrorists win all over a movie, of all things.

 

[SukiWooper]

I'm curious if this film was made specifically because they anticipated North Korea would react to it, thus generating publicity.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

And now North Korea is sucking up to the US by saying that they weren't involved with the hack and are proposing a joint investigation with the US. Why am I not surprised that North Korea is abusing it's "Get out of Jail free" card again so they won't get blamed for their actions? We already know it's them at this point, they started by saying that they weren't behind the hack yet saying it was a "righteous deed" only for the FBI to find out it was them, and now they're wanting to work with the US to find out who did it.

I'm not buying their excuses, all North Korea wants is to back-stab America so they can ultimately reach their goal of destroying the so called "American imperialists" by tricking the US with things like this. Their country has obsessed with destroying America for years, and slowly but surely, they're succeeding at it. Why are we letting them win more?

 

[Beth Pavell]

I really don't think the North Korean fire and brimstone rhetoric is at all sincere - it's probably more for home consumption than anything else. And in any case, this whole affair just looks like an excuse to jab a sharp stick into the American ribs. It's worked beautifully, complete with a neat diplomatic side-step in offering to be co-operative in an inquiry.

As for the film, I couldn't care less. I'm not surprised Sony have pulled it - I think that they're already facing being sued by employees over the security breach. I don't consider it to be a freedom of expression issue at all. If anyone wants to make a film making fun of North Korea, well, there's Youtube waiting with a mass audience. Sony is a private company that makes decisions every day about what film makers to back. If they want to make a decision based on politics, that's their business

 

[Boshi234]

So an insignificant Asian country thinks that because they made threats and hacked a Sony website, they think that ''they won''. Poppycock is what it is.

Their country has obsessed with destroying America for years, and slowly but surely, they're succeeding at it.

Really? North Korea is just a small country compared to the US, every threat they make in their media is just for show and to intimidate the oppressed.

 

[jayrachi]

Sony didn't pull it from theatres. Theatres refused to show the movie. After several large theatres refused to show it, Sony likely realised it couldn't grab a profit from the thing and probably decided to cut their loses.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Sony didn't pull it from theatres. Theatres refused to show the movie. After several large theatres refused to show it, Sony likely realised it couldn't grab a profit from the thing and probably decided to cut their loses.

Colour me corrected. I'm not surprised anyway - looked to me like the kind of film that would have made an ok profit but was hardly set to smash records

 

[MegaFanatic]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Montreal still going to air The Interview?

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

And now North Korea is wanting to attack the White House and the Pentagon because of how Obama is "recklessly" spreading rumors of how their country caused the hack. Anything for attention is what they want at this point.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Montreal still going to air The Interview?

I don't live in Montreal, but as far as I know, Sony completely cancelled it's worldwide release for the movie after the American release was cancelled. Sony has also deleted all websites on the movie, including it's Facebook and Twitter pages. It's like they are trying to bury this movie as much as possible.

 

[Beth Pavell]

It's got nothing to do with attention from the rest of the world. It's propaganda for the North Korean masses, keeping up the pretence of conflict with the world (Ie, South Korea, America etc) whilst actually doing nothing significant to start that war

 

[Garren]

I wonder if Kim Jong-un even was going to die in the Movie.

I always assumed the movie, being a comedy, was gonna flip things around and have Seth Rogen and James Franco end up becoming his friend and turning things around in North Korea.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

It's got nothing to do with attention from the rest of the world. It's propaganda for the North Korean masses, keeping up the pretence of conflict with the world (Ie, South Korea, America etc) whilst actually doing nothing significant to start that war

For more than 50 years, North Korea has tried to start a conflict with someone. Right now the UN Security Council is wanting to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for it's human rights violations, likely to be vetoed by China and/or Russia, meaning that nothing will ever get done to solve the problems with North Korea.

This is why nothing has been done about North Korea, because China is their main ally and they will continually defend North Korea to protect their own interests, which is what the UN has ultimately become since the Cold War ended, which is that the larger and more powerful countries (the US, China and Russia especially) use their veto power simply to protect their own interests rather than actually solving the problems, which after France vetoed actions on Iraq back in 2001 led the US to take the problem into their own hands by invading Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein before Iraq could develop nuclear weapons.

As for North Korea, it's not going to be until they make a long-range nuclear weapon and actually use it that people are going to actually DO something about the country and the problems it is causing. So why doesn't the US do anything about North Korea itself like it did with Iraq, they likely won't because China is North Korea's main ally, and because of how much the US outsources from China, also a nuclear weapons state, the US doesn't want to strain relations with China because they are afraid that a second Korean War would end up being a war with China rather than a war with North Korea, and they don't want to re-ignite the paranoia that the Red Scare caused where people were afraid that any moment, a nuclear war between the US and Soviet Union would occur.

The North Korean state itself doesn't do anything either because it seems like they want to make a long-ranged nuclear weapon that can hit the US. Lately though, China has seemed more wary of North Korea rather than constantly aiding it all the time, so things are likely to change as the years go by. Just keep in mind that North Korea is capable of doing far worse than what they did with Sony, because if they can hack Sony, then they can hack something far larger like The Pentagon or such.

 

[Osprey]

I wonder if Kim Jong-un even was going to die in the Movie.

I always assumed the movie, being a comedy, was gonna flip things around and have Seth Rogen and James Franco end up becoming his friend and turning things around in North Korea.

I recall seeing a small bit from the movie where the helicopter KJU was on got hit by a missile. It was a long, slow-motion shot of him getting incinerated in the blast.