Posted on 12/19/2014 1:38:28 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton appeared on CNN Friday afternoon to address the company's decision to pull "The Interview" from theaters.
Lynton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that Sony did not cave to the hacker group Guardians of Peace (GOP) by pulling the movie.
A clip of the interview ran Friday afternoon on CNN. The full interview will air Friday night on Anderson Cooper 360.
He said the decision to pull "The Interview" only came after the major theater chains decided not to show the film. It wasn't because Sony didn't want to distribute the movie.
"Movie theaters came to us … one by one and announced they would not carry the movie,” Lynton said.
"We have not caved," he added.
Lynton also told Zakaria that Sony has "every desire" to show the movie to the public and most people are wrong in their criticism in the way Sony handled the situation.
"The President, the press, and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
1) No media outlet would take one or a couple e-mails as being valid, they would properly assume that it was faked and not report them. The e-mails were dumped in a huge file, and reporters dug out the juicy e-mails from that file.
2) Again, since they dumped raw files, they really don't have anything to use as blackmail.
They made threats of physical violence at theaters, theaters went ‘oh, forget it, we're not chancing anything going wrong on Christmas, there's too many other movies being released that day, and we're not cannibalizing our sales to just show this movie.’
Sony has a contractual obligation to have the film shown on a certain number of screens for opening weekend. Failure to provide that will allow the production company (and any actors, musicians, etc who have a cut of the ticket sales) to make up any number they please as to what the release gross opening weekend SHOULD have been.
With the pullout of virtually every major chain, they didn't have enough screens to match the contract requirement. That means pulling the release.
Perhaps the production company, actors, and anyone else who has a piece of the movie might come to an agreement at some point in the future for an alternative release method or date, but it is not happening on Christmas. Since releases work on a schedule (to accommodate screen demands in contracts), it will likely not be quick, and will likely be held back until next summer.
Myself, I think it would be smart for everyone to just throw the dice to the wind and go for a widespread digital release to take advantage of the publicity. However, contracts that govern payment and profit sharing just aren't set up to handle that kind of opening; hopefully this will spur the development of such methods.
John Boehner is probably thinking “at least now Amy Paschal also knows what it’s like to be blackmailed.”
That was “Team America: World Police”. Very funny movie. I might watch it this weekend.
Might be a special policy or something. Think I hear that on the Dennis Prager Show.
Has Japanese Prime Minister Abe made any comments about Sony? After all, it is a Japanese company. Why is it that only the Americans are freaking out?
“It’S dark in here, there’s water dripping from stalactites, and every word echoes, but it’s not a CAVE dammit!”
ahh....I love the smell of gunpowder from a Liberal circular firing squad
“Team America: World Police” was a sort of funny movie, in a manner in which South Park is regarded as sort of funny. Far too much was attributed to the capabilities and dedication of the agents who SHOULD have been working for the takedown of the North Korean regime. Technically, we are still at war with North Korea, no peace treaty was ever signed.
So even the most subtle criticism of the North Korean regime could still be regarded as an act of war.
I say full steam ahead. The North Korean regime should’ve been dealt with a long time ago.
Brave, brave Sir Robin
Anyway, it was silly of them to make a film about murdering a real person and a sitting ‘leader’
They wouldn’t have done so re an Isis leader or any other leader
They didn’t cave. The theaters pulled the movie, not much the studio can do with no theaters.
As far and wide as possible is a handful of indie theaters. Maybe 100 screens.
What’s going to happen is it will get released later. The theaters didn’t say never, they said not on Christmas. Look for it in February or so.
The Americans, at least the 5 largest American theater franchises, DID decide. That’s why they pulled the movie, the theaters said they’re out, you can’t really release a movie without the theaters being involved.
Yeah, and Bill Krinton didn’t have sex with “that woman”.
After Sony’s obvious surrender, I don’t care if their company curls up and dies.
“We have not caved,” he added.
Bull. If you have to tell people that you didn’t cave, then you caved.
The whole movie was satire, and nothing about the dedication and capabilities of those agents should be taken seriously. The movie was a parody of Michael Bay movies, with over-the-top action and huge, meaningless explosions. It was also a sendup of politics in the US. Everyone was skewered, from left wing idiots like Michael Moore, to the members of the Film Actors Guild (F.A.G.), and people on the right,
I think it was a funny, brilliant movie, and I urge people to take another look at it.
They caved, but they didn’t “cave, cave”.
Crackle SUCKS. I tried to watch a movie on their Roku channel and there were commercials literally every 5 minutes. It was totally unwatchable.
I don’t mind seeing a 30-second ad at the regular breaks on Barney Miller, but right in the middle of movie scenes every 5 minutes? It’s totally unwatchable.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.