Sony Considers Multiple Web Services For ‘The Interview’

As Sony Pictures considers what it will do with The Interview, it has looked online, but the film’s ultimate destination is still unclear. Five days after terrorist threats caused the studio to pull the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy from theaters, several web platforms have been suggested as potential landing spots, including Crackle, YouTube, and Netflix.

Sony opted to pull The Interview after a group of hackers, who had previously broken into the company’s network and leaked several terabytes of internal information, threatened to attack theaters where the movie was to be screened. The hackers, who are allegedly affiliated with North Korea, have taken issue with The Interview‘s plot, in which the main characters attempt to kill North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

As soon as the film’s theatrical release was cancelled, several outlets called for Netflix to step up and distribute the film. The leading streaming video on-demand (SVOD) site would be a logical choice for The Interview, but Netflix doesn’t seem to be particularly interested. “As it stands right now, while there have been a number of suggestions,” Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, “there has not been one major VOD distributor [or] one major e-commerce site that has stepped forward and said they’re willing to distribute this movie for us.”

Another likely candidate for SVOD distribution is Crackle, the platform owned by Sony. As shown by some of the leaked emails, Sony has considered selling its stake in Crackle, but for now, the site could step in as a distributor for The Interview. On Sunday, the New York Post cited “sources” who said Sony would distribute the film on Crackle, but that report has since been questioned, with a source telling Mashable the New York Post’s assertion is “premature.”

A third choice could be YouTube. When Zakaria asked Lynton whether the world’s most popular video site is a potential destination for The Interview, Lynton responded, “That’s certainly an option and that’s certainly one thing we will consider.”

Right now, there’s very little solid information, but we do know The Interview will eventually see release somewhere. “Sony only delayed this,” said company attorney David Boies on Meet The Press. “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.”