US cinemas ditch N Korea comedy af ter terror threats
NEARLY 300 American cinemas have cancelled screenings of a comedy about North Korea after threats of 9/11 type terror attacks if it is shown.
The warning came from Guardians of Peace, the hackers who have infiltrated the computer systems of movie makers Sony and leaked sensitive emails.
Now the group has stepped up its battle against The Interview –a spoof about an assassination attempt on dictator Kim Jong-Un, who is played by Randall Park – by claiming in an online post: ‘ The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001.’ In response, the film’s premiere in New York today has been called off.
Its stars Seth Rogen and James Franco have cancelled all appearances promoting the movie.
Carmike Cinemas, one of the US’s largest chains with 278 venues, was the first to pull out of screening the £28million film due to open on Christmas Day. It is scheduled to be screened in Britain from February 6.
But other chains are said to be considering following Carmike and Sony has said it will not object if they do.
In their threat, Guardians of Peace wrote: ‘We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places The Interview be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to. Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made. The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001.
‘We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.’
The anonymous hackers also leaked more documents taken from Sony’s computer system.
They have already caused severe embarrassment by revealing frank exchanges including emails between Amy Pascal, co- chairman of Sony Pictures, and producer Scott Rudin.
The group had also posted on the file- sharing site GitHub that their motivation was to stop the release of The Interview. This led many to blame North Korea’s secretive regime but the FBI said it has no evidence linking the dictatorship to the leaks.
Some experts are also sceptical about whether the country has the technical ability for such an attack.
Other theories include the involvement of established hackers such as Lulzsec, which broke into Sony’s systems in 2011 and compromised 100million PlayStation accounts.
‘The world will be full of fear’