The CEO of Sony Entertainment dismissed President Obama’s criticism of his decision to cancel the release of a movie about the assassination of Kim Jong Un, saying Obama was “mistaken as to what actually happened.”
“We do not own movie theaters. We cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters,” said Sony CEO Michael Lynton during an interview on CNN.
“I don’t know exactly whether he understands the sequence of events that led up to the movie not being shown in the movie theaters,” Lynton added. “Therefore, I would disagree with the notion that it was a mistake.”
Earlier Friday, Obama said it was a “mistake” for Sony to scrap the Dec. 25 release of “The Interview” after North Korean hackers threatened attacks against theaters screening the film.
Obama argued that it set a dangerous precedent and could lead to self-censorship by American companies not wanting to anger the North Korean government.
“If somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don’t like or news reports that they don’t like,” Obama warned.
Lynton insisted the studio would like to release the movie, but said the lack of theater participation made it impossible to do so on Christmas Day.
“We have not given in,” Lynton said. “And we have not backed down. We have always had every desire to have the American public see this movie.”
