The Interview

Quote :

If it might offend the Chinese, it don't get made.

Ironically, the bad guys in the "Red Dawn" remake were originally Chinese. When their government made a stink about it, all the uniforms, military equipment, insignias, etc., were digitally altered to make the invaders... North Korean.

Boris2008 wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

My first thought was "Since we caved in to threats because someone didn't like a satirical movie, what are we going to do with the next movie "they" don't like?  What if it's an unflattering or even incriminating documentary?"

Already doing it. If it might offend the Chinese, it don't get made.

A smart business decision considering China will become the biggest market for Hollywood films within a couple of years.

Transformers: Age Of Stupidity...er...I mean, Extinction has made over $1 billion worldwide. Only $245 million came from the United States, the other $800+ million was earned in foreign markets with half of that figure coming from China alone.

China loves big, flashy, cartoonish movies with tons and tons and tons of CGI, explosions and 3D with very simplistic and easy to translate dialogue. So expect more of the same in the years ahead.

S.D. wrote:

big, flashy, cartoonish movies with tons and tons and tons of CGI, explosions and 3D with very simplistic and easy to translate dialogue. So expect more of the same in the years ahead.

Quite the shame that is... and certainly not my bailiwick.

Before the hack:


After the hack:

Meanwhile, in South Korea....

Mike Myers crashed last night's "SNL" in character as Dr. Evil to tell off both North Korea and Sony...

Surprised that Walkman joke was recognized by anyone under 30.

Great stuff man!

Looks like The Interview will be released:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sony-hacking-studio-says-it-will-distribute-controversial-film-the-interview-after-all-despite-north-korea-threat-9939136.html

Trying to figure out how worried I'm supposed to be about this, if at all.

The right is acting like we're headed for total annihilation.

The left is praising the rerelease and laughing this off.

The media is acting like we're going to war.

Sooooo...which one is it?

corplhicks wrote:

The right is acting like we're headed for total annihilation.

Does the movie come with free healthcare?

Coincidence? I think not???

North Korea’s limited access to the Internet has been cut off, according to a network-monitoring company, days after the U.S. government accused the country of hacking into Sony Corp. (6758)’s files.

North Korea, which has four official networks connecting the country to the Internet -- all of which route through China -- began experiencing intermittent problems yesterday and today went completely dark, according to Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Full story here.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-22/north-korea-undergoing-internet-outage-network-researcher-says.html

martinsane wrote:

Coincidence? I think not???

North Korea’s limited access to the Internet has been cut off, according to a network-monitoring company, days after the U.S. government accused the country of hacking into Sony Corp. (6758)’s files.

North Korea, which has four official networks connecting the country to the Internet -- all of which route through China -- began experiencing intermittent problems yesterday and today went completely dark, according to Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Full story here.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-22/north-korea-undergoing-internet-outage-network-researcher-says.html

Ha, for once this administration didn't telegraph what it was going to do.  I was hoping there were machinations going on behind the scenes.

Since all the Korean ISPs are through China, my theory is that we told China to reel in NK because if NK ever seriously disrupts our commerce China will have a hard time collecting all the money we owe them.

Awwww. No more internet porn for Kim Jung Dong.

Sony may distribute "The Interview" for free via Crackle (a video streaming service they own) or a similar venue:

http://recode.net/2014/12/21/sony-hasnt-decided-where-to-stream-the-interview-meaning-not-on-crackle-for-now/

I hope it is a great movie after all this hoopla.

this whole thing gives credence once again to time old sage advice: Don't put stuff in email that you would not want to become public.

Quote :

I hope it is a great movie after all this hoopla.

There was a review in this past Friday's paper from one of the syndicated film critics that was mostly positive (the film had been screened for reviewers prior to the big blowout)... I believe he gave it two and a half stars and said "it's a shame it won't be seen." He also praised the guy who played Kim Jung Un.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

I hope it is a great movie after all this hoopla.

There was a review in this past Friday's paper from one of the syndicated film critics that was mostly positive (the film had been screened for reviewers prior to the big blowout)... I believe he gave it two and a half stars and said "it's a shame it won't be seen." He also praised the guy who played Kim Jung Un.

well i guess the publicity Sony gets out of this will make up for the mediocre movie...

exact33 wrote:

well i guess the publicity Sony gets out of this will make up for the mediocre movie...

When all the whoop-de-doo first began over this movie I honestly wondered if it was all some sort of pre-meditated uber-bizarre publicity stunt to sell tickets... until they yanked it from release and I said "Well, so much for that theory."  

Screening at a handful of theaters and VOD release isn't even going to make a dent in that $90 million that Sony spent producing and marketing the film. It's a big financial hit for the studio, at this point it's just a "statement release".

S.D. wrote:

Screening at a handful of theaters and VOD release isn't even going to make a dent in that $90 million that Sony spent producing and marketing the film. It's a big financial hit for the studio, at this point it's just a "statement release".

Yep, it's basically a "middle finger" to the hackers/North Korea/etc.

Anyway, it's official: the Alamo Drafthouse chain of 19 indie theaters will screen "The Interview" on Christmas Day, which was the film's originally intended release date:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-the-inteview-screenings-alamo-drafthouse-movie-20141223-story.html

Sony just signed a deal with Youtube to make the movie available for rent from their website. Other VOD options will probably also be available, they are in discussion with iTunes and Amazon in addition to other sites.

I'm going to go see it at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood tomorrow. I've been looking for an excuse to visit that particular theater and this seems like a perfect opportunity.

It is playing at 24 independent theaters in the Los Angeles area.

So "The Interview" played in a few hundred theaters on Christmas Day ... and nobody died.

The news this morning sez that there was a power outage in the middle of a screening at a theater in New Jersey, though... betcha that audience must've sh*t bricks. "OMIGOD! NORTH KOREA WASN'T KIDDING! THIS IS IT! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES"

They made a little under $1 million in box office on Christmas Day which is actually quite good for only playing in 300 theaters. However, the original estimation for the holiday weekend (thur thru Sunday) was around $30 million when the movie was still scheduled in around 2000 theaters, so this is still a major financial loss for Sony.

So the "conspiracy theorists" who think this was all some kind of publicity stunt for the studio obviously have no clue about the business.

The original estimates for The Interview were about a $60 million domestic total and about $130 million in the rest of the world. The studio will be lucky if the film brings in $10 million at this point.

S.D. wrote:

They made a little under $1 million in box office on Christmas Day which is actually quite good for only playing in 300 theaters.  However, the original estimation for the holiday weekend (thur thru Sunday) was around $30 million when the movie was still scheduled in around 2000 theaters, so this is still a major financial loss for Sony.  

So the "conspiracy theorists" who think this was all some kind of publicity stunt for the studio obviously have no clue about the business.  

The original estimates for The Interview were about a $60 million domestic total and about $130 million in the rest of the world.  The studio will be lucky if the film brings in $10 million at this point.  

plus when you factor in all the documents and emails Sony has lost and made public the impact is even more significant.