Sony changes its mind: THE INTERVIEW will be released in theaters

The InterviewFrom TheWrap.com:

Sony to Release ‘The Interview’ in Theaters, on VOD Despite Threats (Exclusive)

by Sharon Waxman

After a national clamor to release the film despite threats, Sony finds a way to get the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy out there

Sony Pictures will release the canceled Seth RogenJames Franco comedy “The Interview” in theaters and on video on demand, TheWrap has learned.

The plan is to release the film simultaneously in participating theaters and via video on demand. A number of independent theaters — including The Plaza Theater in Atlanta, MX Theaters in St. Louis, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Dallas/Fort Worth and others — have announced they will distribute the film. MX said it would be selling tickets as of 2 p.m. CT Tuesday.

The release will likely be in the 200-theater range; exhibitors typically cap the rollout of films that offer day-and-date VOD at around 300 sites, because it usually cuts attendance significantly. The move has reportedly exacerbated relations between major theater chains and the studio. Day-and-date VOD releases are a hot-button issue for the major exhibitors.

Two questions for you:

1. Why did Sony change its mind?

2. Would you feel “safe” seeing this movie despite threats?

In my opinion the threats are vacuous.  We just shut down the Norks’ internet.  If I want to see THE INTERVIEW, a ludicrous threat from an absurd little country run by a chubby parody of himself won’t stop me.

BZ

 

Four-letter words: Cuba and Sony

Obama CubaProving that Leftists are Defeatists.

First, Cuba:

What did Mr Obama acquire from his move?  What did he negotiate?  What did he — usget from the negotiation?  Was it even a “negotiation” or was it simple capitulation?  I submit Mr Obama’s move was nothing more than outright capitulation to the Cuban regime.  This is nothing more than a reward to Cuba, with zero expected in return.  Cuba arrested over 8,000 “political prisoners” just this year.  Cuban-Americans are disgusted.  Obama has extended political legitimacy to this dictatorship.  This is a 55-year-old policy overturned.  Obama’s transcript is here.

“Let us leave behind the legacy of both colonization and communism, the tyranny of drug cartels, dictators and sham elections,” Obama said.  As he equates Communism with what he perceives as US colonial power — a thing he must defeat at all costs.

What gets rewarded gets repeated.  And those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it.  It would appear time and again that Mr Obama has total Historical Alzheimers.  Because here is what will happen:

History will repeat itself.  Vladimir Putin, a power broker/seeker of the Nth degree who would love nothing more than to re-create the USSR, has just been provided with a perfect pathway right back into Cuba, a mere 90 miles from the United States.  A Putin whose strength has been partly broken because of the plummet of petroleum power (and whose petroleum power he held over the vast lands of the European Union).  A Putin who, when threatened, will look to the past and see Nikita Khrushchev.  And will be consoled by same when he determines to repeat that past by sending Russian troops to Cuba, welcomed by Raul Castro.

This Obama move did nothing for the people of Cuba.  They will wake up tomorrow still ensconced in a Communist regime with no more freedoms than the prior day.  Americans throughout the globe are no safer; in fact, they are less safe.

Finally, what happens to Guantanamo?  Is this a roundabout way to get Guantanamo finally shuttered by the eradication of the contract?  Was this the point?

Obama, thy name is Chamberlain.  Crouching Obama and Paper Tiger.

Second, Sony:

Rob Lowe TweetSony has likewise submitted and yielded to cyber-terrorism.  This is Spineless Hollywood in the face of a threat clearly on behalf of North Korea and no other. According to Variety, Sony has “no further release plans for The Interview.”  No DVDs, no video-on-demand.  Completely scrapped.  Dead.  Fini.  Roll over, doggie.

Sony, the institution, the entire film industry, just completely collapsed, encouraging others in the future.  “Look what North Korea just got away with.”  This is damned near an act of war against the United States of America.  And yet met with defeatism.

What gets rewarded gets repeated.

Kim Jong Un Churning Nork Peasants Into LubricantAbove, Kim Jong Un churns North Korean peasants into convenient lubricant.  Photo courtesy of Sir Ben Shapiro.

Does this get the Taliban and ISIS thinking: “all we have to do is threaten movie theaters or malls and America?”  That would, I submit, be a Logical Extension of Sony’s action.

In the face of that, however, a Texas theater decides to show “Team America” in place of “The Interview.”  Bully!

Mr Obama weighed in on Cuba.  What is his position on cyber-terrorism against America?  Why is Obama conspicuously silent on the issue?  Why does he refuse to recognize that America was attacked digitally?  What is his reticence?  Why is he hesitant?

Hollywood, thy name is Chamberlain.

BZ

Obama Philosophy