Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Sony Backtracks, Will Now Release The Interview

"The plan is to release the film simultaneously in participating theaters and via video on demand. The Plaza Theater in Atlanta, the MX Theaters in St. Louis and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin have now said they will distribute the film. The MX said it would be selling tickets as of 2 p.m Tuesday."
“We have never given up on releasing ‘The Interview’ and we’re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day,” said Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Entertainment. “At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience.

“I want to thank our talent on ‘The Interview’ and our employees, who have worked tirelessly through the many challenges we have all faced over the last month. While we hope this is only the first step of the film’s release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech.”
James Franco & Seth Rogen

19 comments:

chickelit said...

Still not planning to see it, if that was all a big PR hoax.

Methadras said...

They are going to make a shit ton of money for the 1st two weeks. Then it will die like it should have without the DPRK getting involved.

ricpic said...

This is one of those comedies where you count the grimaces not the laughs.

Chip Ahoy said...

↑ What they said ↑.

Plus Sony is boasting about their own courage. Pfffft.

Ah sniff.

I meant to say "as if."

Such poppycock. Fiddlesticks. Folderol. Bletherskate. Rigamarole. Gimcrackery. Bullshit.

Know what's not tarradiddle?

If you look on eBay for "large Egyptian cat" or "Bastet" then you get a lot of pictures, most of them not so good.

I have a few of those statues. Three. Okay, maybe six. My favorite one is the largest I've seen. 20" tall. I have it on half wall, it just sits there and at first glance looks like a real cat. It is unEgyptian in its stance. More curvilinear than most Egyptian cats. Not posed rigidly. It is a real eye-stopper if that sort of thing falls within your visual field. Remarkably, some people just don't care.

Go figure.

The only thing Egyptian about it is its necklace. But that in not pronounced. You have to get up close to see the cat has one on.

But then, while searching for authentic-looking pieces that would arrest one's attention once they're discovered, like the detailed iguana I intend to conceal outside cleverly as possible. I also discovered another large cat. Not at all Egyptian. The cost was so low I could not resist it. I have no idea what I will do with it. I think it will go outside, also concealed well as possible. The size of it, and the remarkable detail totally got me. Got me up and down, and through and through. Got me by the throat and throttled my neck until my head rattled, that's how much it got me. Wanna see it? Okay. I have no doubt the cost will escalate as all the others already have. I do not know why it is offered so inexpensively. It's a wild cat. A dangerous predatory cat. It's already been shipped.

It's a thing.

I'm not especially attracted to cats. But they are to me. The domestic ones are. I like to fake them out. I mess with their silly minds. I make scritchy-scratchy noises then act like I didn't do it. They walk back and forth touching me with the tip of their tail, then I move my leg so their tail doesn't touch and they spin around and look right at me and they're all, WTF? I flick small things across the room to freak them out and pretend I don't notice anything unusual. I make them think there are ghosts or mice in the walls. You know, the usual things.

But that's it.

I wouldn't want to have a live cat.

Did I ever show you the gold ring I bought when I was 17 years old? I used to wear it all the time. But I'm a klutz. I knocked the Florentine finish off it several times. The gold cat used to have the texture of sandpaper. But it smoothed out, I had it refinished, then wore that out too. It still fits perfectly but I never wear it anymore. I don't care for any jewelry, not even a watch.

So the new statue seems to fit something of lifelong pattern. Of sorts.

William said...

The back story and events circumscribing this movie are more improbable and weirder than any parody. Never has the expression, "you can't make this shit up" rung truer. It's very hard to draw a moral from any of this. I suppose Seth Rogen's fart jokes are covered by the First Amendment, and there's no doubt that young Kim is a very bad dictator, but it's hard to find the moral high ground in a clown car......,There's a very fine movie called Red Chapel. It's a Danish movie about two Koreans who were adopted by a Danish family. They visit North Korea on a kind of good will/propaganda visit. The moviemaker is very gimlet eyed about what he sees in North Korea. Some of it is tongue in cheek, but at one point he says that he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life in a North Korean jail because of a post modern, ironic joke, and he pulls back. The movie is funny, scary, and haunting. It didn't get much of a play when it came out, but it's available on Netflix. I highly recommend it, but several renters have died under mysterious circumstances so try to rent it under an assumed name.

AllenS said...

Maybe it's just me, but I think the only thing that the North Koreans can fuck up is a wet dream.

TTBurnett said...

Starting about nine years ago, I used to be raked over the coals on the old Althouse blog for long comments. Both Chip Ahoy and Sir Archy have done their bit, in the meantime, for the long-form. Thank you both for improving the commenting public.

But my eyes have come around, at last, to glazing over. Thank you, AllenS for concision.

Trooper York said...

Don't mention glazing Tim for crying out loud.

I haven't had a freaking donut in a year and half!

edutcher said...

Since Chip brought Egypt into the mix, it might be instructive to point out that "Exodus" is dying in its second week.

If, as chick suspects, this is a stunt, it may end the same way.

Michael Haz said...

It's a limited, partial hang-out, lower risk backtrack.

Michael Haz said...

If this is all a stunt, then Al Sharpton must be a special effect.

chickelit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

Trooper said: I haven't had a freaking donut in a year and half!

Mmmm, glazed Hostess Cherry Pie

TTBurnett said...

This is what internet-comment glazed looks like.
Your donut, Trooper, is not close.

KCFleming said...

A movie kerfuffle exposes corporate and government weakness to the world.

Few would have ever seen this movie but for the Norks (or Chinese).
Now twice the few will see it.

But that Hollywood and Obama blinked is of grave import.

TTBurnett said...

You can blame Obama for most everything, but he did not "blink" in this case. Sabotaging a movie is not a causus belli. If the internet outage of NK was a U.S. Govt. prank, it was exactly what Obama promised, "proportional." And it was prompt. Also, Obama seemed quite adamant that Sony should not have pulled the movie. I suspect, accepting things at face value, that Federal arm-twisting and guarantees were involved in Sony's decision to release it.

No, Obama and the Feds did about as well as could reasonably be expected. NK "won," but this is a situation where the aggressor wins, no matter what. It is inherently asymmetrical vandalism, and the only thing the potentially vandalized can do about it is to prevent it. Spend less on private jets and stock options for the executives and more on IT, and there may be some hope.

Tank said...

My local paper gave the movie three stars, for what it's worth. I admit, I never heard of Franco or Rogan (maybe I've seen them, but don't know their names?).

KCFleming said...

"No, Obama and the Feds did about as well as could reasonably be expected."

I disagree.
Obama lied when he said to the press that Sony should have called him first.
It has been reported that in fact Sony had been in contact with the White House for days before making the decision to withdraw it.




TTBurnett said...

Citation, please. Lots of things "have been reported." Plus, there weren't that many days in this whole episode, so timelines need to be examined carefully.

Look, I'm no defender of Obama. It's just that I grow suspicious of the instantaneous reaction that Obama does wrong in every jot and tiddle of his Presidency. It looks to me like the whole thing was handled reasonably well, and I would like to see something like proof that Obama is malfeasant in yet another way.