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NY premiere of ‘The Interview’ canceled
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THE New York premiere of “The Interview,” a Sony Pictures comedy about the assassination of North Korean President Kim Jong Un, has been canceled and at least one theater chain had scrapped plans to show it, after threats from a hacking group.
The hackers, who said they were also responsible for seizing control of Sony Corp’s computer system last month, on Tuesday warned people to stay away from cinemas showing the film starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, and darkly reminded moviegoers of the September 11 hijacked plane attacks on the US in 2001.
“We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time,” the hackers wrote. “(If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)”
A spokeswoman for Landmark, which was to have hosted a premiere of the film at its Sunshine Cinema in Lower East Side, New York, today, said by email that the screening had been canceled.
Sony executives had earlier told theater owners it would not pull the film but added they would not object if they decided to cancel screenings, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Carmike Cinemas, operator of 278 theaters in 41 states, informed Sony late on Tuesday that it would not show the film, the person said. Carmike executives were not immediately available for comment on Tuesday evening, a spokesman said.
An official at the US Department of Homeland Security and another US security official said investigations had found nothing concrete so far to substantiate the threat. “At this time there is no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States,” the DHS official said.
Police departments in Los Angeles and New York, however, said they were taking the warning seriously.
The North Korean government has denounced the film as “undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war” in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Internet news company BuzzFeed reported that Franco and Rogen had canceled all planned media appearances on Tuesday, the day they were scheduled to appear at a BuzzFeed event.
Sony is already reeling from the disclosures in papers released by the hackers, which have exposed internal discussions important to the company’s future.
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