Sony Will Release “The Interview” After All

In a mess that just won’t end, the Sony hacker scandal has continued to stretch on. Last week, Sony announced that it wouldn’t release The Interview–the movie that has been at the center of the controversy. Despite the fact that the hackers had threatened violent attacks if the movie was shown, Sony received a lot of flack for that call–including from President Barack Obama. However today, Sony backtracked, and annnounced that it is screening The Interview after all.

Sony Entertainment Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton stated:

We have never given up on releasing The Interview, and we’re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters Christmas Day. 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 stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech.

Some theaters have already announced that they are planning on showing The Interview. A theater chain called Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas has said it will be showing the movie. While exactly where it will be showing the film doesn’t appear to have been released yet, the company has locations in Texas, Virginia, Louisiana, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, California, Nebraska, and New York. A theater in Atlanta called the Plaza Atlanta has also said that it will show the film. It should be expected that other movie theaters, though probably smaller chains, will end up showing the movie as well.

This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, given that one of Sony’s lawyers, David Boies said on Meet the Press on Sunday that it would be released at some point. He explained,

Sony only delayed this. Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed. How it’s going to be distributed I don’t think anyone knows quite yet.

Even if Sony hadn’t made their recent decision to release the film, there was a decent chance that we all would have been able to still see the movie. The amorphous hacking group “Anonymous” has said that they would leak it if Sony didn’t release the film.

Overall, people seem pretty excited that The Interview will be released–especially those who were involved in the production of the film. Seth Rogen, one of the co-directors and stars of the film tweeted:

The people have spoken! Freedom has prevailed! Sony didn't give up! The Interview will be shown at theaters willing to play it on Xmas day!

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 23, 2014

James Franco, one of the other stars, sent out a few equally jubilant tweets, and even got in a shot at President Obama for mispronouncing his name as “James Flacco” in a press conference last week:

CELEBRATING!!!!! "The Interview" starring Seth Rogen and James Flacco saved by President Obacco! I… http://t.co/VXDy7NFtPe

— James Franco (@JamesFrancoTV) December 23, 2014

So, if you were disappointed that you wouldn’t be able to see The Interview on Christmas, there’s hope. More importantly, Sony’s release of The Interview shows that the company is unwilling to give in completely to the demands of cyberterrorists.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.