In recent weeks Sony Picture Corporation has been the victim of a full-scale hacking onslaught by an organization calling themselves "Guardians of Peace." The group is all but confirmed to be based out of North Korea, as they highlighted their main quarrel was with the Seth Rogen project "The Interview." The film follows Seth Rogen and James Franco as they set out on a top-secret mission to assassinate Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea.

What began as a murmur has now grown into a PR nightmare, and a complete retraction of the film that cost Sony Pictures $44 million to make. First Rogen and Franco cancelled all their press appearances for the film, and most recently the major theater chains including Cinemark and Regal announced they would not be showing the film. This followed direct threats made by the "Guardians of Peace" stating harm would come in the form of "9/11 type" attacks on movie-goers and theaters that supported the film.

Now, shortly after, Sony has confirmed that they are completely pulling the film. In a statement Sony stated,


"In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the
film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the
planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners'
decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety
of employees and theater-goers."

Some are viewing this as bending to the will of terroristic threats, which could set a dangerous precedent for like-minded groups or future controversial films and artistic projects. Sony summarized the last few weeks in their statement adding,

"Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against
our employees, our customers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our
intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material,
and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale - all apparently to thwart the
release of a movie they did not like. We are deeply saddened at this brazen
effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to
our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers
and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this
outcome."

The December 25th release of "The Interview" has officially been cancelled, and no word has come out as of yet regarding a possible future VOD or straight to Blu-Ray/DVD release.