In a premise that could make up a pretty unbelievable international political thriller, the Sony hack story has continued to ramp up the what the… meter upon the national consciousness by including computers hackers, world leaders, international corporations and the stars of Judd Apatow’s TV cult classic “Freaks and Geeks.”
Last night, the hacker group known as Guardians of Peace thanked Sony for pulling “The Interview,” a film by known political heavyweights James Franco and Seth Rogen where they are tasked with killing Jabba the Hut North Korean President Kim Jong Un. Now, in the spirit of the grade school bully who wants your lunch money everyday for the rest of your life, the group wants Sony to never release the movie in any format. They told Sony “…we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version, down from any website hosting them immediately.” But, much like trying to get dirty water out of a lake, this may prove to be difficult for Sony.
Since this occurred with the threat of terroristic attacks and the hacks themselves leaked out untold amounts of personal information of Sony employees, President Obama has spoken out on the situation after the FBI determined the hacks came from North Korea. While saying pulling the film was a “mistake” and messing up James Franco’s name in his speech, the president also somewhat conceded the whole ridiculousness of the situation by saying “the notion that [a satirical comedy film] was a threat to them I think gives you some sense of kind of what regime we’re talking about.”
Sony, for its part, has countered those calling them cowards by explaining the logistics of having a ton of theaters refusing to screen the film left them with limited options. They have also countered much hyped concept of streaming the movie via services like Netflix by saying none of these services have stepped forward with an offer.
All this over a movie from the guys who created “Superbad.” Just keep that in mind as this whole thing continues.
The JOE-DOWN 