dan_alto/iStock Editorial/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Sony Pictures said Friday that while it has cancelled the theatrical release of The Interview following the hack that the FBI has attributed to North Korea, the idea of an alternate means of releasing the film is not out of the question.
“Sony Pictures Entertainment is and always has been strongly committed to the First Amendment,” the statement read. “For more than three weeks, despite brutal intrusions into our company and our employees’ personal lives, we maintained our focus on one goal: getting the film The Interview released.”
“Free expression should never be suppressed by threats and extortion,” the statement added.
Still, on Thursday, after threats of an impending attack on theaters showing the film were leveled by hackers, Sony told theater chains that they did not have to show the film. Several of the largest chains, including AMC and Regal, told Sony that they would not be screening The Interview, which prompted Sony’s decision to cancel the Christmas Day theatrical release.
“The decision not to move forward with the December 25 theatrical release of The Interview was made as a result of the majority of the nation’s theater owners choosing not to screen the film,” Sony said Friday. “This was their decision.”
“Let us be clear,” Sony said. “The only decision that we have made with respect to release of the film was not to release it on Christmas Day in theaters, after the theater owners declined to show it. Without theaters we could not release it in the theaters on Christmas Day. We had no choice.”
Still, Sony maintains that alternate releases are possible. “After that decision, we immediately began actively surveying alternatives to enable us to release the movie on a different platform.” The statement also said that “it is still our hope that anyone who wants to see this movie will get the opportunity to do so.”
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