Controversial comedy The Interview will be released on Christmas Day, reversing an earlier move by Sony to pull the film following a massive hack of the studio.
Sony held a conference call with theatre owners on Tuesday and gave them the go-ahead to release the movie in a limited number of independent cinemas. The decision came after President Barack Obama said Sony had "made a mistake" pulling the movie following a campaign to kill it that the US government believes was organised by North Korea.
Largest audience
“We have never given up on releasing
The Interview
and we are excited our movie will be in a number of theatres on Christmas Day,” said Michael Lynton, chairman & CEO of
Sony Pictures
Entertainment in a statement. He said the company was exploring other ways to distribute the movie to the “largest possible audience”.
Sony has been subject to a lengthy and embarrassing hack co-ordinated by a group calling itself Guardians of Peace. The hackers have released a slew of personal emails from Sony’s top executives as well as compromising the personal details of 47,000 employees past and present.
The comedy, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, depicts the assassination of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. It was pulled last week after Guardians of Peace issued a threat against cinema goers. “The world will be full of fear”, the message said. “Remember the 11th of September 2001.”
The department of homeland security subsequently reported there was “no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States”.
On Friday Mr Obama said Sony should not have caved in to the threats. "We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don't like, or news reports that they don't like," he said.
No choice
Mr Lynton told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria last weekend that Sony had no choice but to pull the film, and said that theatres had first decided not to show it. “We do not own movie theaters. We cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theatres,” said Mr Lynton.
Tim League, founder of the Alamo Drafthouse cinema chain, first reported that Sony had authorised screenings via Twitter. The Plaza Cinema in Atlanta also said it would show the film.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s tiny internet network appeared to be working again on Tuesday following a near 10-hour shutdown.
There was no indication as to whether a cyber-attack caused the outage, and if so who might have been behind it. The White House and the US department of state declined to comment.