Sony Pictures Hack

expectationlost

is Sony not going to stand up for film its makes, did it not think it would cause trouble /threats, i doubt this is the first film or piece of media the imagined the assassination of a world leader (altough I wonder what actually happens in the film), i presume it satirises america as much as or more then it does north korea.

team america world police?? Death of a President http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0853096/combined was a future look back at the killing of President bush while he was in office.

Goldstein

This isn't about this one throwaway film. It's about the next one that "offends" the thin skinned ones and the one after that. They've showed how easily the studios can be manipulated into censorship when their movies feature any topic at all deemed undesirable or offensive to anyone crazy enough to issue threats.

As for the theory that it was pulled to appease the "hackers" and prevent even more damaging data from being leaked I don't think the Sony execs would be naive enough to believe that information won't get leaked anyway regardless of what they do.

The damage is done to them now. Releasing it online for free would be a ballsy move but it'll never happen. Either that or fast track it onto blu-Ray and watch it hit no. 1 all over the world as a fairly predictable protest vote.

expectationlost

if sony didn't do enough to protect its staff and more stuff is released on them?

cloudatlas

Well the hackers missed the boat as there's already a very irreverent film about North Korea it's called 'Team America'. :pac:

Goldstein

I can't wait for the next South Park

Tweet from Rob Lowe:

Saw @Sethrogen at JFK. Both of us have never seen or heard of anything like this. Hollywood has done Neville Chamberlain proud today.

Congrats Sony, following what might be considered the first (public) cyber skirmish they have secured peace in our time.

Standman

Can't believe how easily everybody folded to what seem like obvious empty manipulative threats. How about these cinema chains and studios have a bit of backbone for once? Stand up for the ideals that allowed you to get so damn successful in the first place.

Not a big fan of Rogen, but if I was living in the states I would have made a point of going to see it just for the principle of it.

McSasquatch II

You had me at Girl team up.

The Black Oil

I forget who said it, but 'they sure can document a **** up in a hurry' fits.

pixelburp

I have to laugh at some of the media outlets reporting this, specifically their comments sections and their usual collection of contrarians and conspiracy theorists, all speculating that of course this is all just some great marketing ploy by Sony. As if all the private employee data and general sh*tstorm they find themselves in is a cunning wheeze to get more marketing for The Interview.

All that said, I am damn curious now to see the film; not because it ever looked any good - if anything it seemed like more evidence that nobody's actually trying to make vaguely intelligent comedy anymore - but simply because I don't believe hackers / North Koreans should have any say on how or where we enjoy the freedom of cinema.

Thargor wrote: »

Of course it could also mean the hackers found an absolute gold nugget in that 40 TB of data and blackmailed Sony with it.

That might be the case, but the first shot was fired by the cinema chains, all voluntarily deciding not to run the film. Whether or not there was any dirt on Sony would have surely had no affect on the cinemas' decision.

cloudatlas

Well if it does come out then it'll have had some of the best publicity of any film for as far as I can remember. Controversy aside I actually liked the trailer and was looking forward to a good year end comedy as there have been so few this year.

Harry Palmr

Dreadful precedent even The Last Temptation of Christ was released and there were some seriously crazy people after Marty et al back then.

Sony can only do one thing now to restore some pride and that's leak the film once its out there it'll spread like wildfire and North Korea won't know who to threaten as it'll be "everyone's" film.

DoYouEvenLift

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Dreadful precedent even The Last Temptation of Christ was released and there were some seriously crazy people after Marty et al back then.

Sony can only do one thing now to restore some pride and that's leak the film once its out there it'll spread like wildfire and North Korea won't know who to threaten as it'll be "everyone's" film.

They might try to get it launched on as many video on demand services as possible and also screen it at whatever cinemas will show it. At this point I imagine they're just gonna be trying to lower the loss of money as much as possible. I'd actually like to see this movie do well money wise as a big "fuk you" to the hackers so it lessens the chance of other pricks trying to get movies removed from cinemas in the future.

the_syco

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Why woulð you close down a gym after a hack?

I'm guessing there's either a WiFi access point there, or a couple of ethernet ports that are not on camera. When you don't know where the hack is coming from, you shut down every possible angle.

pixelburp wrote: »

Ordinarily, the prospect of a Seth Rogan comedy being pulled from cinemas wouldn't make me bat an eyebrow, but this all seems like a situation spiralling out of control / credulity

I see the NK connection as smoke n mirrors, to throw off the real reason of the hack.

=-=

Seems the DVD release of "Fury" that has appeared on the internets was from this hack.

=-=

When you consider a full (untouched) BluRay movie is about 40GB's, I wonder how many movies that 2TB's consists of? Its as if the 40GB's of text is all the text, and the rest is movies. If done correctly, the people who grabbed the movies could make some money by releasing pirate BluRay copies when the various films hit the cinemas?

=-=

I think threatening "9/11 on cinemas" may have what caused a few of the cinemas to decide not to show it. As said, it wouldn't be a box-office hit, so most cinemas probably looked at how much they'd gain, versus how much they stood to lose, and decided to just not show it.

DoYouEvenLift

the_syco wrote: »

I'm guessing there's either a WiFi access point there, or a couple of ethernet ports that are not on camera. When you don't know where the hack is coming from, you shut down every possible angle.


I see the NK connection as smoke n mirrors, to throw off the real reason of the hack.

=-=

Seems the DVD release of "Fury" that has appeared on the internets was from this hack.

=-=

When you consider a full (untouched) BluRay movie is about 40GB's, I wonder how many movies that 2TB's consists of? Its as if the 40GB's of text is all the text, and the rest is movies. If done correctly, the people who grabbed the movies could make some money by releasing pirate BluRay copies when the various films hit the cinemas?

=-=

I think threatening "9/11 on cinemas" may have what caused a few of the cinemas to decide not to show it. As said, it wouldn't be a box-office hit, so most cinemas probably looked at how much they'd gain, versus how much they stood to lose, and decided to just not show it.

There was way more than 2TB taken I thought? Last I heard it was almost 100TB

FloatingVoter

It'll leak. Screener season is beginning and while this was no award hopeful it'll slip out just like all the others do every year. Even more likely given that copies will have been distributed to mainstream news channels as well as industry insiders.
As for North Korea being behind this - they are nuts but getting upset over a Z movie is of no benefit to them. Sony had to pull the flick on the 1% chance that there was a serious threat. 99% odds say this is just yet more little anonymous wannabes.

DoYouEvenLift

FloatingVoter wrote: »

It'll leak. Screener season is beginning and while this was no award hopeful it'll slip out just like all the others do every year. Even more likely given that copies will have been distributed to mainstream news channels as well as industry insiders.
As for North Korea being behind this - they are nuts but getting upset over a Z movie is of no benefit to them. Sony had to pull the flick on the 1% chance that there was a serious threat. 99% odds say this is just yet more little anonymous wannabes.

I wonder will people who pirate movies ever get at least 720p copies of award screeners. Surely the people who actually receive the screeners don't use regular DVDs anymore and use blurays now

FloatingVoter

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

I wonder will people who pirate movies ever get at least 720p copies of award screeners. Surely the people who actually receive the screeners don't use regular DVDs anymore and use blurays now

Screeners are often viewed legitimately by voters while they sit hunched over a laptop in the Atacama desert on location. They're rarely bluray quality although the Hobbit 3 probably will be due to it being an effects movie.
The Interview will probably be a crap movie whatever resolution its viewed in. I'll still buy the popcorn and lift the movie.

expectationlost

FloatingVoter wrote: »

It'll leak. Screener season is beginning and while this was no award hopeful it'll slip out just like all the others do every year. Even more likely given that copies will have been distributed to mainstream news channels as well as industry insiders.
As for North Korea being behind this - they are nuts but getting upset over a Z movie is of no benefit to them. Sony had to pull the flick on the 1% chance that there was a serious threat. 99% odds say this is just yet more little anonymous wannabes.

Sony hasn't come against threats to its films before?

expectationlost

Sony said they are not goimg to release it in any format.

Goldstein

aaaaaand death scene leaked.

expectationlost

the alamo drafthouse boutique cinema had planned a showing of team america https://www.facebook.com/AlamoDrafthouseDFW/posts/763057813789222 but Paramount won't let anyone show it.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/12/18/paramount-bans-showing-team-america.html

cloudatlas

expectationlost wrote: »

the alamo drafthouse boutique cinema had planned a showing of team america https://www.facebook.com/AlamoDrafthouseDFW/posts/763057813789222 but Paramount won't let anyone show it.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/12/18/paramount-bans-showing-team-america.html

Wow this has gone way too far. I wonder if they are being advised by counter terrorist organisations otherwise this is a major overreaction.

Bipolar Joe

Something about this stinks, and I don't buy even half of it (The pulling of the movie). Say it'll never be released, ever, in any format, release, make serious bank in protest against the tyranny of Best Korea.

Faith+1

The sex scene in that movie is epic!

hfallada

This America after all. I listen to my American friends and the fear of some stuff in America is unreal. There is nothing worse than airing a movie in cinemas people are terrified of going to. I wonder will Sony just cut a deal with Netflix or Amazon and release the film that way

pixelburp

Well continuing the story of the gift that keeps giving, the latest set of leaked emails suggest various Sony execs thought The Interview was a pretty terrible movie anyway, Reuters quoting the emails as saying the film was 'desperately unfunny and repetitive', and 'another misfire from the pairing' of Franco and Rogen.

The Team America cancellations are also pretty astonishing; it doesn't seem that long ago that North Korea was something of a punchline in various jokes - what happened? The whole hacking story itself feels like a weird, screwball comedy - I look forward to the film adaptation in years to come.

Frank O. Pinion

What happens if an anti-terrorist group threatens to blow Sony up if they don't air the film?

They probably haven't even thought of that.

Cork boy 55

North Korea has commando units in the USA in deep cover
At least five cells infiltrated during 1990's and are asleep
There is a real threat.

expectationlost

pixelburp wrote: »

Well continuing the story of the gift that keeps giving, the latest set of leaked emails suggest various Sony execs thought The Interview was a pretty terrible movie anyway, Reuters quoting the emails as saying the film was 'desperately unfunny and repetitive', and 'another misfire from the pairing' of Franco and Rogen.

The Team America cancellations are also pretty astonishing; it doesn't seem that long ago that North Korea was something of a punchline in various jokes - what happened? The whole hacking story itself feels like a weird, screwball comedy - I look forward to the film adaptation in years to come.

"a level of realistic violence that would be shocking in a horror movie." did he see Pineapple Express? same deal http://defamer.gawker.com/leaked-emails-the-interview-sucked-for-sony-even-befor-1671234001

expectationlost

Cork boy 55 wrote: »

North Korea has commando units in the USA in deep cover
At least five cells infiltrated during 1990's and are asleep
There is a real threat.

American bombed the crap out of North Korea in the 1950's have NK ever attacked on the US homeland?