While the Sony Pictures hacks have been largely digital, the other day the hackers released a threat in which they threatened actual physical attacks on cinemas that would screen Sony Pictures’ The Interview. Safe to say that this is a whole new level of attacks that we would see from the hackers and it looks like Sony decided that they would be better safe than sorry.
The company has recently announced that they have since cancelled the theatrical release of The Interview following the threats from the hackers, as well as theater chains who have been dropping the movie, probably out of safety concerns for its employees and patrons. “Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale – all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like.”
However Sony did not seem to completely rule out the possibility of releasing the movie. While they did not mention it explicitly, insiders have told the folks at Variety that Sony is currently exploring their options on how to release the film, one of which is making it a premium video-on-demand option as a way to recoup some of its investment.
The threat to cinemas follows an earlier threat by hackers who wanted the movie pulled. At that time the hackers simply threatened “or else” but with the latest threat, things are definitely getting a lot more serious and dangerous. While some are pointing their fingers at North Korea being involved, the country has denied those claims which was later backed by the FBI who said that their own investigations did not yield any evidence.