After a month of leaks, embarrassment, and terrorist threats — not to mention an admonishment from President Obama himself — Sony has reversed course and will release The Interview on Christmas Day in a limited number of theaters.
The Alamo Drafthouse, an independent theater chain based in Austin, confirmed to Yahoo Movies that it will screen the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy about assassinating North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The Plaza theater chain in Georgia also tweeted that it would be showing the film.
According to The Wrap, Sony will also release the film on video on demand systems.
Sony gave the green light to the theaters after pulling the movie from theaters last Wednesday; that decision came in the wake of North America’s five biggest chains announcing that they would not screen the movie due to threats made by anonymous hackers who promised a “9/11-style” attack on theaters that showed the film.
The hackers have wreaked havoc on Sony, exposing years of personal and business emails and embarrassing the company for over a month. The FBI has formally accused North Korea of being involved in the hacking.
President Obama criticized Sony for pulling the film, as did much of Hollywood, which saw the move as a bow to terrorists and a blow to free speech; Sony claimed that it “had not caved” to such pressure. A lawyer for Sony said earlier this week that the film would eventually be released, but gave no further details.
