Update: Alamo founder says Sony Pictures to allow Christmas Day opening for ‘The Interview’
Robert Wilonsky Follow @RobertWilonsky Email rwilonsky@dallasnews.com
Published: December 23, 2014 10:38 am
Comment
(Sony Pictures)
Randall Park, center, as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in The Interview, which you could get to see as soon as this week
Update at 10:48 a.m.: Tim League, Austin-based founder of the Alamo Drafthouse, tells The Dallas Morning News via email that “Sony has authorized shows for Christmas Day. Will have Dallas shows on sale within the hour.”
Sony cancels ‘The Interview’ release after chains, including Plano-based Cinemark, refuse to screen
The Alamo Drafthouse Richardson says tickets will be available on its website before 11:30 a.m.
We’re awaiting word from other exhibitors, as well as from Sony Pictures.
Sources familiar with this morning’s conference call say Sony is going to make the movie available to theaters at a reduced rental rate. They also say Sony is looking put it on a streaming service (not yet named) and video on demand by no later than Christmas. More to come.
Original item posted at 10:38 a.m.: Less than a week after Sony Pictures canceled The Interview amidst hackers’ vague threats, it’s once again beginning to look a lot like a possible Christmas Day opening is in the works.
Sources familiar with the situation tell The Dallas Morning News that Sony executives are discussing the likelihood of a Thursday release during a conference call that was scheduled to begin at 10 this morning Dallas time. Sony has said it wants to release the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy about killing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un; and exhibitors say they want to show it. There has also been some suggestion that Sony will follow a theatrical release with a video-on-demand offering, possibly days later. At this point, though, no one will go on the record — not Sony, not exhibitors.
But this morning ago, an Atlanta independent theater announced it will open the film on Christmas Day. And there is no doubt that the Alamo Drafthouse will screen the film if it comes available. Yesterday its founder, Tim League, tweeted a link to the Alamo’s website and the Art House Convergence’s petition demanding The Interview‘s release as “an opportunity to reaffirm clearly our dedication to the value of freedom and the absolute necessity to keep our film industry free of restriction, censorship and violent intimidation.” The Alamo’s a member of the indie-art house coalition; so too is the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff.
For now, take all this with a North Korean-sized grain of salt: Just days ago The New York Post reported that Sony was going to use its never-heard-of-it streaming service Crackle to show the film for free. Sony later dismissed that account while insisting The Interview “will be distributed” somehow without saying, well, how. This is all starting to feel like one big practical joke — or the best promotional campaign for a movie in the history of illumination.
President Obama, of course, last week gave a thumbs-down to Sony’s plan to bury The Interview. “You know, had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what that story was,” Obama has said. Apparently, the movie has bipartisan support: Over the weekend Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus sent a letter to the owners of the nation’s biggest theater chain, including Plano-based Cinemark, that said, “I want to speak clearly on behalf of the Republican Party: I urge you to show the movie.”
Clearly, updates to come.
http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.co...n-the-interview-christmas-day-after-all.html/
more news: http://www.aol.com/article/2014/12/...iere-the-interview-on-christmas-day/21120448/
-DMP-
fukkery
Back to our regularly scheduled fukkery.
fukk NK
