High-brow art house theaters and low-key college town cinemas became the unlikely stars of a Hollywood comeback by convincing the powerful Sony Pictures studio on Tuesday to let them screen The Interview, the film shunned by the multiplexes and corporate chains.
Film buyer Jan Klingelhofer found herself in down-to-the-wire dealings with a studio known for its careful planning.
“I think everybody has been doing a certain amount of this on the fly,” said Klingelhofer, who runs Pacific Film Resources in Oakland, California.
Photo: Reuters
“This is completely atypical of Sony’s usual deliberate and precise manner of doing business,” she said. “They’ve really had to step up.”
Independent cinemas normally would not be considered the landing spot for a lowbrow satire starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, leading stars for stoner, gross-out comedy. The Interview, codirected by Rogen, depicts a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and has incensed the reclusive nation now blamed for a devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures.
The Hollywood studio said last week that it pulled The Interview after the biggest North American theater chains backed out citing security concerns.
Sony Corp’s reversal came after it faced criticism from the public and US President Barack Obama that the Hollywood studio had capitulated to hackers and self-censorship.
Russell Collins, who runs the State Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said he launched an online campaign among the industry’s independent theaters to screen The Interview to support free speech.
Sony Pictures said more than 200 US theaters are to screen the US$44 million film as of Christmas Day, less than 10 percent of the number of theaters in a typical nationwide release.
“We were happy to play a role to support the colleagues we work with at Sony and be sympathetic with their great difficulty to exhibit the film,” Collins said.
Klingelhofer, who negotiated the film for Collins, said the agreements with independent cinemas were put together so quickly there was no talk of minimum-length runs.
“They were much more open to a non-standardized arrangement than they would be normally,” she said, adding that any security arrangements at cinemas would be left to theater operators.
Klingelhofer surmised that issues could arise down the road between Sony and some art house theaters over ticket prices.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday declared emergency martial law, accusing the opposition of being “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime” amid parliamentary wrangling over a budget bill. “To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness, I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a live televised address to the nation. “With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice,” he
The Mainland Affairs Council and lawmakers yesterday accused a visiting Chinese university student of denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty by referring to the national baseball team that won a first-ever Premier12 title as “China, Taipei team” (中國台北隊). “We deeply regret the Chinese student’s words, that have hurt the feelings of Taiwanese... The Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, as the organizers, should remind group members not to use inappropriate words and behavior,” a council statement said. “We hope these young Chinese can accurately observe the true views of Taiwanese, which would be a positive development for interactions between young people on the two sides of the Taiwan
PHONE CALLS: Two US lawmakers told Lai about the US Congress’ bipartisan support for Taiwan to preserve its democracy and freedom, and for stronger bilateral ties US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said during a telephone call with President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday morning that recognition of Taiwan is at the core of the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy, Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said. The call marked the first time Lai had spoken directly with Johnson, of the Republican Party, since taking office in May. Lai also had a call with US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of the Democratic Party and a videoconference with Republican Senator Roger Wicker while in Guam, during a stopover on his way back from visiting the nation’s allies in the Pacific,
China is trying to set a "red line" for the incoming Trump administration and US allies by stepping up military activities in the region, a senior Taiwan security official said, including likely war games this weekend around Taiwan. China has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan so far this year, and its forces operate nearby on a daily basis. The official confirmed concerns expressed by other security officials in the region who have previously told Reuters that China could launch new drills to coincide with Taiwan President William Lai's (賴清德) trip to the Pacific this week which included visits to
RSS