Sony Pictures Television’s digital arm Crackle has postponed the premiere of its James Caan, Kevin Dillon hacker movie “The Throwaways,” due to the parent company’s own messy and sensitive hack situation, an individual with knowledge of the production told TheWrap exclusively.
Crackle also appears to have removed the trailer’s press screener and other materials from the web.
“The Throwaways,” which was set to premiere on Friday, Dec. 19, follows notorious hacker Drew Reynolds (Sam Huntington), who is captured by the CIA and given a proposition — work for them or spend the rest of his life in prison. Reynolds agrees to join on the condition that he gets to choose his own team. Instead of picking from the top agents the CIA recommends, Reynolds goes
Jeremy Renner is counted among the executive producers, alongside Don Handfield and Timothy Linh Bui. “The Throwaways” was written by Michael Ross and directed by Tony Bui. The feature film also stars Katie McGrath.
The individual told TheWrap that the company decided it would not be “appropriate” to release the hacking film as planned given the current climate, as mountains of internal documents and personal information continues to pour out of the Sony hack, revealing internal plans, secrets and correspondence that is providing the major Hollywood player with a public relations nightmare.
The movie is not dead, however, the person added: Sony and Crackle hope to reschedule “The Throwaways” for as early as January, when they hope things calm down.
The now-infamous Sony hack has also exposed personal information — including salaries, home addresses and even medical records — of current employees and those who stopped working at Sony as far back as 2000 when the information was leaked to various news outlets and over BitTorrent.
The massive cyber attack has exposed many embarrassing emails sent from the executive ranks at Sony Pictures — including several from co-chairman Amy Pascal — with thousands of more pages of previously internal and private documentation sure to be released in the near future.
Those investigating the hack are currently pointing towards North Korea as the prime suspect in terms of the cyber crime’s geographic origin.