Confusion and fear reign supreme as the White House and Hollywood come to grips with Sony Pictures agreeing this week to shelve a movie indefinitely over reported threats from North Korea.
President Obama believes it is up to Sony whether it pulls “The Interview,” a comedy about the assassination of Kim Jong Un, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday.
The president “stands squarely on the side of artists and other private citizens who want to freely express their views,” Earnest said.
The White House press secretary also said U.S. national security officials are reviewing the reported hacking of the Japanese entertainment giant’s computers by operatives working for the communist North Korean dictator and “would be mindful of the fact that we need a proportional response.”
Meanwhile, three U.S. movie theaters revealed Thursday that Paramount Pictures has banned them from screening “Team America: World Police,” a 2004 comedy that lampoons North Korean dictators, in response to Sony canceling “The Interview.”
Separately, there are conflicting reports as to whether the film will be released at all, with Variety suggesting at one point that the controversial comedy may be available in the future for online streaming and then reporting later that the film will likely not be available in any format.
Simply put, it does not appear that anyone in Hollywood or the White House seems to know what is happening or what the appropriate response should be.
“Really hard to believe this is the response to a threat to freedom of expression here in America,” comedian Ben Stiller lamented.
“Wow. Everyone caved. The hackers won. An utter and complete victory for them,” Rob Lowe, who co-stars briefly in “The Interview,” said.
Actor Steve Carell, who was slated to appear in a North Korea-based thriller until it was also shelved, added: “Sad day for creative expression.”
Sony’s decision to cancel the movie’s Dec. 25 release date comes on the heels of the top theater chains in the U.S. announcing this week that they would not show the movie over threats that screenings would be met with acts of terror.
Filmmaker Judd Apatow said of the theaters canceling their showings: “I think it is disgraceful that these theaters are not showing The Interview. Will they pull any movie that gets an anonymous threat now?”
“I agree wholeheartedly. An un-American act of cowardice that validates terrorist actions and sets a terrifying precedent,” late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel said in response to Apatow.
The theater cancellations were precluded by anonymous hackers supposedly in the service of North Korea breaking into Sony’s computers and lifting sensitive employee information, including personal emails, some of which have already been leaked to the press, and sensitive financial information.
Shock and anger were not the only reactions to Sony announcing that it had canceled “The Interview.”
Confusion and fear also settled on news media and entertainment personalities as it became clear that Sony had admitted to defeat.
“This whole thing is just scary, man,” comedian Chris Rock said Wednesday. “It’s emails, it’s your private stuff, and the whole town is scared. Everybody’s got to be scared … nobody knows what to do.”
It is unclear whether Sony will shelve the film permanently or whether it will consider releasing it at a later date. At any rate, even if the film is released eventually, political personalities weighed in on the issue, suggesting that North Korea’s alleged actions go well beyond stifling the right to speak freely.
“Sony should release [“The Interview”] online for free so North Koreans can’t censor American creativity,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. “No one should kid themselves. With the Sony collapse America has lost its first cyberwar. This is a very, very dangerous precedent.”
“[I]t wasn’t the hackers who won, it was the terrorists and almost certainly the North Korean dictatorship, this was an act of war,” he said.
Former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested Sony release the movie free online globally and that is ask viewers for a voluntary $5 contribution to fight, which would later be donated to fight Ebola.
For now, it appears that operatives reportedly in the service of the Hermit Kingdom have scored a major victory, forcing a multibillion-dollar American industry to back down over threats of violence and intimidation.
“If North Korea can publicly attack Sony and other American businesses, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, and threaten to kill our citizens on our soil, we have a stark choice to make. We either stand up and defend ourselves against 21st century warfare, or we invite additional attacks through weakness,” Richard Kelsey, an Assistant Dean at George Mason University School of Law, said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
“The cyber warriors are watching. Our failure to act is an invitation to disruptive attacks by even greater and more sophisticated groups,” he said. “We have no option but to isolate and devastate North Korea. If we don’t, far more serious and substantial sponsors of cyberwarfare will be attacking our interests. This, Americans cannot permit.”
