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Hackers who targeted Sony Pictures in a massive data breach are now threatening anyone who goes to see the new film 'The Interview' with a "9/11" style attack. Carmike Cinemas is the first chain to cancel planned showings of the film in response.
A security guards walks past the entrance to Sony Pictures Plaza in Los Angeles, on Dec. 4, 2014, a day after Sony Pictures denounced a 'brazen' cyber attack.(Photo: Frederic J. Brown, AFP/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO - A second theater chain has pulled The Interview after hackers posted a message threatening a "9/11" style attack on theaters that screened the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy.
Bow Tie Cinemas, the nation's eighth-largest chain, announced Wednesday that it will not show the movie about an assassination attempt by bumbling journalists against North Korean leader Kim Jung Un.
The chain was "saddened and angered" by the threats, CEO Ben Moss said in a statement.
Because the credibility of the threats couldn't be known, Moss aid Bow Tie has "decided after careful consideration not to open The Interview on December 25, 2014 as originally planned. We hope that those responsible for this act are swiftly identified and brought to justice."
The chain has 55 theaters in Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and New York with approximately 350 screens.
Tuesday night, Carmike Cinemas, the fourth-largest cinema chain in the country, decided to cancel its planned showings of the film, the Associated Press reported. Carmike operates 278 theaters across the country.
Events surrounding the hack attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment began to cascade late Tuesday after the hackers' message went public.
Federal officials say they are close to finding the source of the hack. A federal law enforcement officer familiar with the situation but not authorized to publicly speak about it could not say when an answer might come.
A note from the Guardians of Peace group posted online Tuesday morning warned potential movie-goers, "We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you'd better leave.)"
"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," it continued.
The New York premiere of the comedy, which depicts an assassination attempt against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was cancelled Tuesday night, a spokesman for LandmarkSunshine cinemas said. It had been scheduled for Thursday.
The West coast premiere, in Los Angeles, took place without incident on Dec. 11.
USA TODAY
Sony puts on game face for 'The Interview' premiere
Sony will not withdraw the film following the threat, but is leaving it up to theater owners and chains to decide whether to show the film, a source familiar with the situation said late Tuesday.
Peter Bart, former editor of Variety and a longtime executive at Paramount Pictures, says it's unclear how Sony should proceed.
"There are so many levels to this, it's hard to deal with any kind of intelligent answer on what to do next," he said. "I have had actors and stars die in the middle of productions. I have had the federal government threaten to do nasty things to me if I released a picture. I have seen a number of phenomena. But I have never anything coming even close to this sort of thing on any level."
The Interview is scheduled for a wide release, which would put it in somewhere between 2,000 to 4,000 theaters. Given that it's an R-rated comedy, it will probably open in 2,000 to 3,000 theaters, according to Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with Rentrak, which does box office tracking analysis.
Sony stands to lose tens of millions of dollars if theaters choose not to screen the movie. Published reports estimate production costs upwards of $44 million.
In terms of the response it's likely to elicit from law enforcement, the shift from simply posting stolen files to threatening potentially thousands of movie viewers, is "game changing," said Tom Kellerman, chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro, a computer security company.
"It represents a clear and present danger to civilians and additional resources and capabilities can, and will, be brought to bear," because of it, he said.
The language in the messages posted by the hackers in conjunction with their release of Sony data files began as taunting, but has increasingly veered into threats. Tuesday's post was an escalation, however, because it was the first that mentioned actual violence.
With a physical threat made, "the gloves are off," said Philip Lieberman, a security expert with Lieberman Software.
"This is a well-known bright line and I can't believe they crossed it," Lieberman said. He called it "a tactical mistake" on the part of the hackers.
"Anyone who is familiar with the assets and capabilities of the United States would never do what they did," he said.
Law enforcement had been investigating the Sony hack since it first became public Nov. 24.
"The FBI is aware of recent threats and continues to work collaboratively with our partners to investigate the Sony attack," said FBI spokeswoman Jennifer Shearer.
The addition of a "threat to life and limb" gives police and federal agents one additional tool in their efforts to track down those behind the attack, said Nate Cardozo, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet digital rights group based in San Francisco.
Prior to a threat of violence, U.S. Internet service providers are not allowed to voluntarily turn over information about a poster without due process, Cardozo said.
Now that the line has been crossed, "it would give the network providers leeway to cooperate with law enforcement even before there was a warrant," he said.
Long-time film critic and historian Leonard Maltin was at a loss for words over the latest turn of events in the saga, now entering its fourth week.
"There have been protests over films," he said. "But I cannot think of threats from an anonymous group like this."
Contributing: Andrea Mandell, Bryan Alexander, Kevin Johnson, The Associated Press
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