SONY Pictures has said it will show "The Interview" in a limited of number of cinemas from Christmas Day, less than a week after its release was cancelled following a cyber-attack blamed on North Korea.
The decision comes after hundreds of independent movie theatres said they wanted to screen the film, about a fictional plot to assassinate North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, which major chains backed out of last week owing to security concerns.
The White House said Barack Obama applauded the move. The president had earlier described Sony's decision not to go ahead with the release of the film as a "mistake", saying: "We cannot have a dictator imposing censorship in the US."
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said yesterday: "As the president made clear, we are a country that believes in free speech, and the right of artistic expression. The decision made by Sony and participating theatres allows people to make their own choices about the film, and we welcome that outcome."
President Obama's rare public rebuke of a corporation fuelled the debate over freedom of speech and whether Hollywood was engaging in self-censorship, with stars including Ben Stiller and Aaron Sorkin joining in the criticism.
In a statement issued yesterday, Sony Pictures Chief Executive Michael Lynton said: "We have never given up on releasing 'The Interview' and we're excited our movie will be in a number of theatres on Christmas Day.
"At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theatres so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience."
The cyber-attack, which began last month, crippled Sony Pictures' computer system and led to an embarrassing leak of internal emails and sensitive documents.
The hackers, operating under the moniker Guardians of Peace, made unspecified threats to theatres planning to show the film, which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco. They demanded that Sony cancel the film's release.
The FBI has pinned the cyber-attack on North Korea, which had protested the film as far back as June. North Korea has denied it is behind the attack.
Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse Cinema was one of the first to say it was authorised to screen the film. A theatre in Atlanta, the Plaza Atlanta, said on social media that it will also show the film.
An online petition launched by Art House Convergence, a de facto association of independent cinemas that pledged to screen "The Interview" if Sony chose to release it, had drawn more than 500 signatures from independent theatre owners, programmers and operators.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article