Sony Pictures Entertainment officials said Friday they still hope to make the film “The Interview” available to viewers in some fashion.
In a statement, the company said it only canceled the film’s planned Christmas Day release when theater owners opted not to show it due to a threat by the group behind the massive cyberattack on the studio.
“Sony Pictures Entertainment is and always has been strongly committed to the First Amendment,” according to the company. “For more than three weeks, despite brutal intrusions into our company and our employees’ personal lives, we maintained our focus on one goal: getting the film ‘The Interview’ released. Free expression should never be suppressed by threats and extortion.
“The decision not to move forward with the Dec. 25 theatrical release of ‘The Interview’ was made as a result of the nation’s theater owners choosing not to screen the film. This was their decision. Let us be clear, the only decision that we have made with respect to the film was not to release it on Christmas Day in theaters, after the theater owners declined to show it. Without theaters, we could not release it in the theaters on Christmas Day. We had no choice.
“After that decision, we immediately began actively surveying alternatives to enable us to release the movie on a different platform. It is still our hope that anyone who wants to see this movie will get the opportunity to do so.”
