While we've all had our share of laughs at the Sony hacking scandal, the issue just took a more serious turn. The perpetrators of the cyber-attack have now warned of 9/11-style attacks against movie theaters showing James Franco and Seth Rogen's comedy, The Interview, which they believe is an "act of war" against North Korea. An excerpt from the message reads:
"Remember the 11th of September 2001.
We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time.
(If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)"
This is obviously a huge step up from just leaking embarrassing emails or revealing actor salaries, and we've already seen Sony respond by canceling the big New York City premiere of the film which was to be held on Thursday. At least two theater chains, Carmike Cinemas and ArcLight Cinemas, have announced they won't show the movie at all due to the threats. We've also seen Franco and Rogen cancel their press commitments for the film in response.(If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)"
There's little reason to believe the cyber-terrorists, who call themselves the "Guardians of Peace" (???), have the capability to pull an attack like this off, and the Department of Homeland Security says there is no evidence these threats are legitimate. However, if the plan was to get people to stay away from the film out of fear it may have worked.
There is an advance screening of The Interview here in DC tonight, and obviously given the city we live in the threat of a terrorist attack is somewhat heightened. I'm one of those people who believes you battle terrorism, which all about using fear to progress a political or social agenda, by doing everything you would normally do. So I will be there tonight because that's what I would be doing any other night. Now do I expect the security to be tighter than just making sure nobody has their IPhone on? It damn well better be. I just find it amazing that any group, whether it's led by North Korea or not, would be offended at such an obviously harmless comedy like The Interview. Kim Jong-un needs to chill out and save his taepodong for some of Sony's more offensive projects. Did he see The Amazing Spider-Man 2, by chance?
