Sony Pictures has now indicating its intention to distribute “The Interview” in some way after scrapping its original Dec. 25 theatrical release, but that doesn’t mean it’s coming to the company’s streaming video service Crackle. New York Post’s report on Sunday claiming that Sony intends to make it available for free on Crackle is “not true,” an insider told TheWrap. The Post has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.
“Sony only delayed this,” Sony attorney David Boies said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. “Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed. How it’s going to be distributed, I don’t think anybody knows quite yet, but it’s going to be distributed.”
The studio pulled the film’s distribution after all of the major theater companies declined to carry it in the wake of threats hackers’ “9/11”-like threats of violence. The hacker group, Guardians of Peace, has continued its cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment since it first hacked into the company’s systems in late November.
At the time it pulled the film, Sony said that it had “no further release plans” for the Seth Rogen, James Franco comedy about journalists tasked with assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Later, though, CEO Michael Lynton indicated the studio does intend to release the film, though no major VOD distributors have proven willing to carry it.
Sony owns Crackle, though, which distributes and streams original content. While it’s similar to Netflix and Amazon Prime, Crackle is free to watch. It makes money through advertisements rather than subscription fees. Crackle’s most prominent original program is