Landmark Theatres has pulled the plug on the New York premiere of “The Interview.”
“A Landmark spokesperson has advised that the NY premiere at the Sunshine Cinema has been cancelled for Thursday night,” the theater chain said in a statement issued to TheWrap on Tuesday night.
Also read: Carmike Theater Chain Drops Sony’s ‘The Interview’ After Hackers’ Terror Threat
The premiere had been scheduled to take place Thursday at Sunshine Cinemas, which is owned by Landmark, with Seth Rogen and James Franco scheduled to attend.
The cancellation comes on the heels of a new threat posted earlier in the day by hackers purporting to be the ones behind the crippling Sony hack. The threat promised 9/11-style attacks on theaters showing “The Interview.”
Also read: Sony Hit With New Class Action Lawsuit Claiming Negligence
The message was included with the release of a new set of hacked emails and warned theatergoers in broken English to “recommend you to keep yourself distant”:
We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.
Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.
The world will be full of fear.
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.)
Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
All the world will denounce the SONY.
The news also comes after Carmike Cinemas became the first theater chain to pull “The Interview” from release. The film is scheduled to open across North America on December 25.
Also read: Sony Hit With New Class Action Lawsuit Claiming Negligence
The comedy stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as U.S. journalists who are asked by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea last summer warned that the film’s release would be an “act of war that we will never tolerate,” and said that the United States will face “merciless” retaliation. Its government on Dec. 6 denied it was behind the Sony hacking, but called the cyberattack “a righteous deed” and said that it could be the work of its supporters.
While Sony is dealing with theater woes on “The Interview” front, the studio is also fielding further fallout due to the hacking. It has been slapped with two class-action lawsuits from former employees and production managers who worked on previous Sony productions and whose personal information was leaked online as part of the massive hack.