Sony CEO ordered 'The Interview' toned down; Rogen objected

Look! Governments pressuring to censor art. That's never happened before.

How juvenile does Kim Jong Un have to be to start a war over a movie.

A rogue nation finds this an act of terrorism while continuing to run countless gulags denying human rights to its own people, but a comic film riles them up? Obviously a sense of humour is a threat to the regime. Sound familure?

Guarantee that when it is released in Japan NK will threaten Japan and no cinema will show it.

I would think that the US Govt. would be doing more (maybe they are behind the scenes) to protect the business interests of Sony since they employ US people (I know that they are Japanese owned).

But what may be telling is that some of the emails released depict a behind the scences belief in some of the top execs who were heavy contributors to the Dems in elections, and they had some not so "PC" things to say about Obama. My guess is that there will be some serious fall out from this.

I was at first thinking that this was just some publicity stunt by the studio to drum up interest in the movie, but with what's being released, I don't think that is the case.

Guarantee that when it is released in Japan NK will threaten Japan and no cinema will show it.

Haven't they already announced that it is not going to be released in Japan or anywhere else in Asia (except Aus/NZ, if you count those)? A great pity if true.

Sony = CHICKEN!!

Man up, show the flick, bring it to Japan, DONT cower to the NK dictator!

Don't let J-politics spoil the flick!

Judging by the previews, the movie looks pretty stupid and I wouldn't want to see it anyway. Definately made for the "sub90s" (people with an IQ of less than 90).

theeastisred: Yeah you are correct.... not to be released in Asia... how weak sauce

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/source-interview-wont-be-released-756447

I remember the days when people had guts and courage. No wonder SONY is tanking.

Of course if North Korea was to have hacked Sony this would be the movie they wouldn't leak on the net so it could easily be made available worldwide! Ha!

But don't worry everyone, if you really want to see this movie, it'll be on the net soon enough despite all the PirateBay's in the world being shut down or skittish execs or politicians.

Thanks for the spoiler!!

Why does the title contradict the actual article, they did tone it down.

Judging by the previews, the movie looks pretty stupid and I wouldn't want to see it anyway. Definately made for the "sub90s" (people with an IQ of less than 90).

I wholeheartedly agree. I find it offensive that Hollywood deems to market itself to the mentally handicapped youth of America and the ever growing contingent of "medical" marijuana users. I guess their only excuse is, that it's just too easy to take their ticket money. I've given up on Hollywood myself with the slew of sequels and remakes they churn out. Dumb and Dumber was exactly that, but apparently it isn't enough to insult people once, now they want us to go watch Dumb and Dumber 2?

If I was NK I'd be offended too, just for a different reason... Namely being attached to such low grade fare.

Yawn...

ramses68, the reason for Dumb and Dumber 2 was that people did not realize that they had been insulted witn only the first movie. Will there be Interview 2? Maybe.

Welcome again to the new China. Either their censorship is getting worse -- clear from the fact they rejected the movie in Japan -- or else they are bowing down to North Korea. Take your pic.

Hirai you are a spineless coward. I can't believe you frat over a movie just because its about a North Korean brat. No wonder the people of Asia thinks Japanese are cowards that can't standup to China without the USA holding your hands.

"Guarantee that when it is released in Japan NK will threaten Japan and no cinema will show it."

It's not getting a theatrical release in Japan.

Regardless of some of the comments herein about the juvenile aspects of the film or the IQ of the average Hollywood movie fan, as a writer of several screenplays I'm extremely protective of the imagery I create and I'm more than disappointed in Rogen for going to his knees and letting his writing, acting and co-directing of the film get bullied into submission. No guts, no glory.

So it was okay for Lloyd Bridges to go after Saddam Hussain (who gets turned into a part dog as well) in Hot Shots Part Deux, but the ruler of the most bizarre place on Earth is above lampooning? If anything the Interview is a spoof on the American secret service rather than an attack on Li'l Kimmy-Poo... at least that's what I'm assuming from the trailers and clips I've seen.

I find this situation very surprising, this is North Korea we're talking about, not the Muslims. It's not like they have millions of fanatical followers all over the world who are willing to murder people who offend them. The North Koreans threaten the US all the time, what with those ridiculous videos they put up on the internet.

"I find it offensive that Hollywood deems to market itself to the mentally handicapped youth of America and the ever growing contingent of "medical" marijuana users. "

And do you also opine that the Jerry Lewis comedies were aimed at pot smokers?

It's a form of soft censorship, cowering to Kim Dumdum or his goons.

According to emails that span from August through October and were obtained by Reuters, Hirai asked Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, to change a key shot in the film. It depicts Kim struck by a tank shell, causing his head to explode.

Since Sony does no business in NK, and likely never will, this is purely a political decision by Hirai/Sony, or a capitulation to a perceived "terrorist" threat. In either case, it is a show of weakness by someone who should be fighting for creative license, not tossing it away. It is similar to years ago when CBS/60 Minutes caved to pressure from the tobacco industry and backed off airing a very damaging piece, which later proved to be 100% correct.

“This is now a story of Americans changing their movie to make North Koreans happy,” he said in an Aug 15 email. “That is a very damning story.”

Rogan is 100% right and a lot of American film-makers will now shy away from Sony pictures. That will hurt Sony in the long run.

Thanks for the link gogogo:

Most of the Japanese media coverage of the hacking has portrayed it as an American problem, despite it occurring at the subsidiary of one of Japan's most storied corporations. Most reports have quoted U.S. news sources and described Sony Pictures as a "major American media company," rather than as a part of Sony Corp. - See more at: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/source-interview-wont-be-released-756447#sthash.9Zpsv50a.dpuf

These movies should go straight to dvd theyre not worth the money wasted seeing something this dumb on a big screen.

Quote: “The head explosion can’t be more obscured than it is because we honestly feel that if it’s any more obscured, you won’t be able to tell it’s exploding and the joke won’t work,” he said.

That's a joke?

What about the too familiar disclaim declared by Sony studio on every its movies “the view and Opinions expressed in the film do not reflect the view and Opinions of the Sony Studio …”

Sony CEO's manipulation in the movie "The Interview" indicates that Sony has been lying to the public all along. That begs an essential question; do major Japanese companies have the moral fibers o are they just the tools of J-govt ?

I'm going to take the whole family to see it just to thumb my nose at the pudgy Un.

I have to agree with Geoff that it's probably a stupid movie but since NK is so upset I have to support Sony for making it. Anybody who can piss off the little Un turd is OK in my book.

Rogen responded by promising to remove three of four burn marks on Kim's face, and reduce the "flaming hair" by 50%. But he said he could not meet all the demands.

"The head explosion can't be more obscured than it is because we honestly feel that if it's any more obscured, you won't be able to tell it's exploding and the joke won't work," he said.

This is such a beautiful quote.

How about this for a comedy movie plot? A North Korean basketball team arrives on a short tour of the States as peace envoys and when presented to Obama one of them pulls out a pistol and puts a bullet in his head... HA,HA,HA...

Not so funny, right? The trailer for The Interview looks very funny but they've gone too far...

I'm still holding out for the director's re-cut, with Un and his Scanner's moment.

We need to thank N Korea for 'promoting' this movie. We'll never got to even hear of it in the first place...

Why yield to Pyongyang's crying? After all, Kim Jong Un himself looks quite comical. Something like an Asian Dr. Evil ready to start his "Alan Parsons Project" at any moment.

Judging by the previews, the movie looks pretty stupid and I wouldn't want to see it anyway. Definately made for the "sub90s" (people with an IQ of less than 90).

Maybe people are just not as uptight as you and can find humor in something you obviously can't. And so since you can't understand why people think this movie would be funny, you decide to insult there IQ in hopes that it would make you seem more intelligent and clever. But since you are not, you failed on both accounts...

An American friend says the movie is really about Obama (OK, we did have a bit to drink). How does that work?

How many movies where the president of the US is killed, the white house blows up etc? Take a chill pill NK

We should probably ask Jenkins, the US GI who defected to NK and now lives in Japan on how many movies he was involved with in NK that depicted the US and the rest of the world as bad and how many had plans to kill off western leaders. I am sure that those films won every award in NK and were seen by all.

As I remember it, Japan cowered to the Middle Eastern interests in 1977 who objected to the movie "Black Sunday" and the film was yanked from Japanese theaters after only one or two days.

gogogo: Guarantee that when it is released in Japan NK will threaten Japan and no cinema will show it.

"Team America: World Police" with the Kim JongIl puppet was released in Japan around 2005, have things changed since then?

If there was a movie made of an assassination of a black president of some powerful country in the world, how will it be reviewed and taken? Just because one calls it art, doesn't mean one has free reign to produce anything & everything. Would like to see if these same Hollywood bozos have the guts to make this movie.