It gets crazier and crazier with The Interview, the US comedy in which the CIA wants to implicate two television journalists in an assassination attempt against the leader of North Korea.
You could almost say that film has once again been overtaken by reality.
Although it is not yet crystal clear what exactly is going on. What does seem certain is that US moviegoers will be deprived of a presumably wacky comedy at Christmas. Or spared. That will be a matter of taste.
The trade journal The Hollywood Reporter reported yesterday that the five largest US cinema chains have decided to The Interview not to premiere on 24 December. Possible later screening is still under consideration.
This in part in response to "real or perceived threats to security". Hackers operating under the name Guardians of Peace have threatened 9/11-style attacks on cinemas that are The Interview exhibit. Whether, as many assume, North Korea is behind this, or whether it is other internet rascals who are now laughing in their fists at the consternation caused is unclear. That the NSA has not exposed them long ago is perhaps most surprising.
That North Korea hates The Interview has been known for much longer. During production, the sharpest edges were already polished off the farce, but to no avail. That totalitarian regimes have no sense of humour is well known. The hubbub will not have been bad for Sony's publicity department initially, but that everything is a big marketing stunt now seems out of the question.
Incidentally, Sony had already decided, apparently a little guiltily, to The Interview not to be released in Asia. That we do have fun with Asian stereotypes here is apparently no objection.
Then, at the end of November, producer Sony Pictures, in protest against The Interview hacked by the secretive Guardians of Peace. These obtained numerous internal documents, ranging from the script for the new James Bond to embarrassing gossip. So that action, after several warnings, has now been followed by a successful threat.
Incidentally, this is not the first time North Korea has been the bogeyman in an American film. Illustrative of the way Hollywood chooses its enemies is the action film Red Dawn (1985). In it, American teenagers take heroic action against a foreign invasion of Russian and Cuban troops. Russians were the obvious enemy during the Cold War.
When a remake was considered more than 20 years later, they wanted to replace the Russians with Chinese. But China had by now become too important to America, so North Koreans were allowed to do the dirty work in the eventual re-make in 2012.
In the action film Olympus Has Fallen (2013), the terrorists targeting the White House were also of North Korean origin.
Very difficult can the cinemas' decision to The Interview to delete presumably would not have been. Reviews published so far have been mixed. The Guardian sums up the tenor nicely with the qualifier 'very amusing, very imbecilic film'. Although the poster contains enough self-mockery to make one curious.
The Dutch screening did not seem to be at risk. The largest cinema chain Pathé planned to The Interview simply to premiere on 29 January. However, Sony has just revealed The Interview not to release.
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