Showing posts with label The Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Interview. Show all posts

Friday, March 27, 2015

James Franco Has A Very Uneasy conversation with Letterman about The Interview

By Eric Renner Brown, Mar. 26, 2015, EW.com

Remember last fall’s insanity surrounding the release, then not-release, then okay-but-online-only release of Seth Rogen and James Franco’s North Korea-spoofing The Interview? David Letterman does. Franco stopped by Wednesday’s Late Show, where Letterman had some pointed questions for the actor-stoner-scholar.

The bit began innocuously enough, with Letterman asking Franco how he reacted to the controversy surrounding the film’s release and if he ever thought the debacle would cost him his career. “We never felt like we were irresponsible or doing something wrong,” Franco responded. “We made a comedy. We weren’t going out on a limb saying there’s some messed up things going on over there—I think pretty much the rest of the world agrees.”

Letterman continued to push Franco, citing the famous “shouting fire in a crowded theater” trope that explains the boundaries of free speech. “You had every right to release the film in theaters, had every right, except for the possibility that there might have been something untoward happen,” Letterman explained.


Read the full story:  www.ew.com

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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Free-speech Activists To Drop DVD Copies Of The Interview Into North Korea 

By Ben Child, Feb. 10, 2015, The Guardian

A coalition of human-rights activists is to airdrop DVD copies of the Kim Jong-un baiting comedy The Interview over North Korea.

The Cinema For Peace Foundation, which is leading the project, said it would use hydrogen balloons to transport the controversial film to the country, in a symbolic gesture aimed at encouraging free speech. North Korea has attacked The Interview for scenes of violence against Kim Jong-un, and the FBI said in December that it believed hackers linked to the regime were responsible for a recent cyber attack on studio Sony that saw entire movies, sensitive private emails and salary details of Hollywood luminaries released publicly onto the web.

“We will start sending hydrogen balloons with DVDs of The Interview to North Korea, so that the people there can watch the movie.


Read the full story:  www.theguardian.com

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Monday, January 19, 2015

North Korea Pushes Myanmar To Seize Pirated Versions Of 'The Interview'

Paul Mooney and Aung Hla Tun, Jan. 15, 2015, Reuters

Government officials and police contacted by Reuters denied receiving any order to seize the film. "We seized them simply because they were unapproved and pirated," said an officer from a police-station in Latha Township in Yangon, who declined to be named, referring to some copies of the film seized in a recent raid. Visits to a half-dozen stalls and shops selling illegal DVDs in downtown Yangon failed to turn up a single copy of the film, although dozens of other pirated DVDs were on sale.

Read more: www.reuters.com


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'The Interview' Will Lose $30 Million

Reuters, Jan. 16, 2015, Newsmax

Sony announced Jan. 6 that the film had grossed $31 million from online and video-on-demand revenues through its first week and a half in release. The comedy has also generated nearly $6 million in limited theatrical release.

Major theater chains such as AMC, Regal and Cinemark have indicated privately that they were angered and frustrated with Sony not giving them more time to respond to the terrorist threat.

Read more: www.newsmax.com


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Wednesday, January 7, 2015

'The Interview,' 'Sex Tape' Lead Razzies' Worst Film Shortlist

Daniel Kreps, Jan. 5, 2015, Rolling Stone

Other movies competing for an esteemed Worst Picture nomination are the Kirk Cameron epic Saving Christmas, the Johnny Depp techno-thriller Transcendence, the unnecessary Mary Shelley remake I, Frankenstein, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, horror spoof A Haunted House 2, Nicolas Cage's apocalypse drama Left Behind, plus Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt? – which scored a remarkable 0% on Rotten Tomatoes – and The Legend of Hercules.

Read more: www.rollingstone.com

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Saturday, January 3, 2015

Film Review: 'The Interview,' For All Its Controversy, Falls Flat

Andy Klein, Dec. 31, 2014, Glendale News Press

Perhaps because Kim is portrayed as a lying madman, compensating for his feelings of inferiority in comparison to his father and grandfather. Or perhaps because he's shown being blown to bits. But likeliest is the general disrespect of the film's attitude: It's one thing to say Kim is a dictator, but it's a step beyond to show him crying like a baby, cavorting with scantily clad women, and pooping his pants. What broad comedy directed toward teen demographics would be complete without at least one butt/poop joke? (And there are several here.)

Read more: www.glendalenewspress.com


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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Interview: Political Satire Has Rarely Ever Been So 'Meh'

Anthony L. Fisher, Dec. 26, 2014, Reason

As political satire, it's toothless and aimless. The Interview never promises you it's going to be Dr. Strangelove, but I guess I was hoping Rogen would satirize Stalinist totalitarianism with the same rapier wit he used to goof on himself and his self-important Hollywood friends in last year's hit This Is the End.

That said, this uneven film with fewer laughs than the average South Park episode is now a cultural touchstone because of a still unfolding political soap opera whose ending has not yet been written.

Read more: www.reason.com



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Friday, December 26, 2014

Is North Korea Really Behind Sony Hack Attack?

Tom Cheshire, Dec. 18, 2014, Sky News

The problem is that it can often be impossible to attribute a cyber attack.

Hackers use fake IP addresses routed through many different computers to throw law enforcement off.

They plant false flags inside the code to shift suspicion on others. Simple stories can't do justice to a very messy and complex affair.

Read more: uk.celebrity.yahoo.com


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'The Interview' Review: Much Less Compelling Than The Events It Inspired
Patrick Clark, Dec. 24, 2014, Business Week

The plot unfolds from there, and it’s about as sophomoric as you’d expect. There are women in bikinis, a late-night encounter with a live tiger, and two tabs of Ricin poison concealed on Rogen’s person in the grossest way possible. The would-be assassins are waylaid when Skylark finds in Kim a kindred spirit. After the pair drink margaritas, fire artillery from a tank, and recite Katy Perry lyrics, Skylark decides he can’t follow through with the scheme. Then Skylark walks into a North Korean grocery store constructed to fool western tourists. “The grapefruits are fake!” he cries. From there, it’s just a few minutes to the Kim Jong Fireball.

Read more: www.businessweek.com



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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Sony To Release 'The Interview' On Theaters, On VOD Despite Threats

Sharon Waxman, Dec. 23, 2014, The Wrap

The plan is to release the film simultaneously in participating theaters and via video on demand. A number of independent theaters — including The Plaza Theater in Atlanta, MX Theaters in St. Louis, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Dallas/Fort Worth and others —have announced they will distribute the film. MX said it would be selling tickets as of 2 p.m. CT Tuesday.

Read more: www.thewrap.com


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Monday, December 22, 2014

SONY Reportedly Plans To Release Seth Rogan Comedy 'The Interview' Online For Free

Alyson Shontell, Dec. 21, 2014, Business Insider

Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Friday that his companydid not “cave” to the pressure of hackers. Lynton said the film’s release was canceled because theaters came to Sony one by one over the course of a “very short period of time … and announced they would not carry the movie.”

Lynton says Sony had “no alternative” but to cancel the Dec. 25 theatrical release. He also stated that Sony was condering online alternatives for the release, including YouTube, but that it needed a distribution outlet to show the film.

Read more: www.venturebeat.com


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Saturday, December 20, 2014

Obama Berates Studio For Pulling Kim Jong-Un Assassination Movie

By Associated Press, Snejana Fatberov, David Martokso, Dec. 19, 2014, Dailymail.co.uk

President Barack Obama said on Friday that Sony Pictures Entertainment made a crucial mistake in self-censoring when it canceled the Christmas Day release of 'The Interview,' a satirical film that depicted the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

The decision followed a crippling cyber attack on Sony's servers that was launched by the North Korean regime. But critics have branded the film company as cowards for tucking tail and running when it was threatened.

'Sony's a corporation. It has suffered significant damage,' Obama told reporters in an end-of year press conference. 'There were threats against its employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced.'

But then he lowered the boom.

'Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake.'

'I wish they had spoken to me first,' he said.

'I would have told then, "Do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks".'

Read the full story:  
www.dailymail.co.uk

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More Leaked Emails Reveal Sony Executives Thought North Korea Movie Would Flop

Seth Rogen and James Franco
By Reuters, Dec. 18, 2014, Dailymail.co.uk

Forget the politics: Sony Pictures was pretty much begging for someone to kill its 'desperately unfunny' comedy on the fictional assassination of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-Un.

Leaked emails reveal Sony executives were concerned about the action-comedy featuring Seth Rogen and James Franco — even before hackers believed to be 'state sponsored' by North Korea threatened the company and forced it to shut the movie down.

'The unanimous point of view here is that this (is) another misfire from the pairing,' said an e-mail purportedly written by Peter Taylor, of Sony Pictures UK.


Taylor added the movie was 'desperately unfunny and repetitive.'

He added: 'James Franco proves once again that irritation is his strong suit which is a shame because the character could have been appealing and funny out of his hands.'

Taylor and other executives agreed that the first half hour of the film, which features a satirical interview with hip-hop artist Eminem, was amusing but was later overshadowed by 'realistic violence that would be shocking in a horror movie'.

Read the full story:  www.dailymail.co.uk

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Friday, December 19, 2014

The Kim Jong-Un Death Scene From The Interview Has Leaked

Andrew Kirell, Dec. 18, 2014, Mediaite

No matter how desperately Sony Pictures tries to prevent The Interview from seeing the light of day following terror threats from North Korea-sponsored hackers, the climactic scene in which Dear Leader Kim Jong-Un is killed (in extraordinarily violent fashion) has leaked onto the Internet.

Read more: nation.foxnews.com


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Thursday, December 18, 2014

‘The Interview,’ Movie Review 

Joe Neumaier, Dec. 17, 2014, New York Daily News

The pair must have thought they were making a successor to Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” (1940) with a dash of “Stripes” (1981). But things have changed since those movies were made: Today, one slight miscalculation can result in a bomb of an entirely different kind.

Too bad dictators and terrorists don’t think they’re that funny, because “The Interview” is.

Read more: www.nydailynews.com



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Steve Carell Movie Set In North Korea Scrapped In Wake Of 'The Interview' Terror Threats

Ethan Sacks, Dec. 17, 2014, New York Daily News

"We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees and the American public," Sony said in a statement.

Read more: www.nydailynews.com


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Seth Rogen, James Franco Get ‘Giant’ Bodyguards

Marianne Garvey, Brian Niemietz, and Oli Coleman, Dec. 17, 2014, New York Daily News

"They're usually not at all the type to have security," said an insider, "James is the kind of guy who takes the subway all the time." The source joked that the "Spiderman" star's beefy new companion is "double (Franco's) size."

Read more: www.nydailynews.com


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Sony Cancels Theatrical Release For ‘The Interview’ on Christmas

Brent Lang, Dec. 17, 2014, Variety

In announcing the decision to cancel the holiday debut, Sony also hit back at the hackers who threatened movie theaters and moviegoers and who have terrorized the studio and its employees for weeks.

“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,” the statement reads.

Read more: www.variety.com


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