EDITORIAL: Caving in on ‘The Interview’

On Nov. 22, a group calling itself Guardians of Peace hacked the computer systems at Sony Pictures. The incident resulted in the leak of sensitive information about the studio and Hollywood figures, as well as many embarrassing celebrity emails, several unreleased films and the script for the next James Bond film.

From the outset, North Korea was believed to be behind the cyber-attack. The country denied the allegations, but praised the act, calling it “a righteous deed.” Later, the hacker group threatened a 9/11-type attack on any movie theaters that screened “The Interview,” a screwball comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, which depicts the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The next day, major theater chains in the United States announced that they wouldn’t be screening the film, resulting in Sony ultimately canceling its planned Christmas Day release.

The FBI has since officially accused North Korea of the attack, and while North Korea has again denied the allegations — and proposed a joint inquiry with the United States — the formal allegations have caused the isolationist regime to once again step up its rhetoric, including accusing the United States of being behind the making of “The Interview.” According to a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency, the “army and people of the DPRK [North Korea] are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the US in all war spaces including cyber warfare space.”

Unmoved by the threats, President Barack Obama says that Sony “made a mistake” in pulling the film.

“If we set a precedent in which a dictator in another country can disrupt through cyber, a company’s distribution chain or its products, and as a consequence we start censoring ourselves, that’s a problem,” he told CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday.

The president is right. The motion picture industry has set a terrible precedent in motion by caving to the ridiculous threats of an insane despot. The fact that upset theaters were also prevented from screening another film, “Team America: World Police,” as a replacement is equally outrageous, as is the cancellation of the planned “Pyongyang,” a thriller set in North Korea and starring Steve Carell.

Will we ever again see another film about North Korea? Probably not. And now that ISIS and other terrorists around the world know Hollywood can be so easily bullied, we can likely expect the industry to avoid making films about Islamic extremists or anyone else who might be crazy enough to threaten lives over artistic expression. We are a little less free as a result of this craziness.

And truly crazy it is. Consider the following:

First, this incident developed not from a powerhouse epic of cinema depicting North Korea’s horrific human rights abuses or the indescribable suffering inflicted on its people by an evil communist regime, but rather because of a dumb comedy with a premise so stupid that no one would take it seriously.

Second, Kim Jong Un is fine with being criticized by world leaders in global news outlets, but he becomes unhinged knowing that free people around the world might have a few good laughs at his expense. Instead of attacking the entertainment industry, he should embrace it. (For starters, has he ever considered how much world perception of him might change if he enlisted Hollywood stylists to give hair and wardrobe makeovers to him and his regime?)

Lastly, it’s sort of amazing to think that an impoverished backwater nation could bring a major corporation to its knees by hacking its email accounts and revealing its executives to be as phony and petty as any reasonable person would expect movie executives to be. Corporate communications will never be the same. First-world industry is now scrambling to bolster cybersecurity — and to try to erase every potentially embarrassing email ever sent. And we all have Kim Jong Un to thank.

On Tuesday, Sony said it plans to release “The Interview” on Christmas Day on a limited number of screens, calling it “only the first step” in the movie’s release plan. If Sony follows through, be sure to watch it. While you still can.