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Sony Swears They Haven't Caved: 'We Would Still Like The Public To See This Movie'
Michael Lynton, Chairman/CEO SONY Pictures attends the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation's 19th Annual 'Taste for a Cure' at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel on April 25, 2014. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
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Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton is sick of people (like Obama!) going around and saying his company gave in to the terrorists by pulling "The Interview" from theaters on Christmas Day."We have not caved. We have not given in. We have persevered," Lynton told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. He added, "We would still like the public to see this movie. Absolutely."
Lynton said Sony was backed into a corner because theater chains fearful of terror threats refused to even show the film. And he admits he wasn't happy with Obama who said Sony made made a mistake.
"I don't know exactly whether he understands the sequence of events that led up to the movie not being shown in the movie theaters," Lynton said. "Therefore I would disagree with the notion that it was a mistake."
Sony offered a statement today explaining their decision to pull the film and their hopes of eventually releasing it:
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Sony Pictures Entertainment is and always has been strongly committed to the First Amendment. 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 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. This was their decision. Let us be clear -- 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. After that decision, we immediately began actively surveying alternatives to enable us to release the movie on a different platform. It is still our hope that anyone who wants to see this movie will get the opportunity to do so.
Paramount, on the other hand, pulled "Team America"—a 2004 comedy mocking North Korean leaders—from distribution. Theaters like the Alamo Drafthouse were hoping to make a statement by showing the film. Steve Carell’s "Pyongyang," which was in the works, sadly isn't likely to see the light of day.
North Korea is denying they were behind the hacks and terrorist threats.
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