Wow, now I
did not see that coming. Sony has canceled the Interview, starring Seth Rogen
and James Franco, with no clue as to whether the film will actually ever get
released. This comes in the wake of the Sony hack that gave us the knowledge of
that potentially phenomenal Spider-Man news but the hackers weren’t happy with
just potential, they demanded that Spider-Man return to Marvel immediately and
have threatened to take extreme action if their demands aren’t met.
Wait, that
doesn’t sound right. I think it’s something to do with North Korea being a
little peeved about The Interview’s portrayal of their great and powerful
leader, Kim Jong-un. They also aren’t overly happy with the films central plot
to assassinate Kim Jong-un for the good of the world or some shit, and have
threatened action against the moviegoers of America if they choose to watch
this abomination!
This is a
dangerous precedent with the censoring of freedom of speech and creative
integrity and all that jazz, coming under scrutiny. It sends a message to the
whole of Hollywood that if you are well organized and half-decent with a
laptop, then you could pretty much shut down any film that rubs you up the
wrong way. I am personally thinking of taking an advanced computing night class
in an effort to take down Terminator Genysis on the grounds that if you can’t
spell genesis right, you don’t deserve to make another Terminator film.
Not only has
Sony’s decision have paved way for Americans to remind us that they are American
and they won’t stand for un-American things, but other studios are following
suit with Steve Carell’s upcoming North Korean comedy also being cancelled as
well as Paramount refusing to let any theatres show Team America as a
replacement for The Interview. I mean, come on Kim Jong-un, your Dad was cool
with Team America in all of its awesome, depraved puppet glory! Why won’t you
let us watch Seth Rogen try to kill you for 90 minutes!?
There has
been a lot of criticism of Sony, calling their actions cowardly and un-American
(they are a Japanese company after all), but Sony were up against the major
theatres of America, who didn’t trust that the safety of their customers who
went to see The Interview was guaranteed. Here’s the thing, if Sony feel like
they can’t keep people safe by releasing The Interview then they probably made
the right call in cancelling the release for the foreseeable future.
People will
end up watching this movie, whether Sony have a change of heart or decide to
sell the distribution rights or even if the film just gets leaked on
BitTorrent. People will find a way to watch The Interview, the only real loser
in all of this is Sony, so normal service resumed I suppose.
Alex A.
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