by Shane “Hacky Sack” Hnetka
Well, that was a lot of hype for nothing. After a month of build-up, scandal and threats, The Interview played in theatres and nobody died and nothing was destroyed. But what was it all really about?
Sony’s Wacky End Of The Year Extravaganza
Near late of November some hackers called Guardians of Peace or some such crap do what hackers do best and hacked Sony’s computers and prematurely released a few movies to the internet. They claimed it was all so that the movie, The Interview, wouldn’t get released. They were offended that the movie kills off the leader of North Korea, so they leaked movies. That leak cost Sony more than a few bucks.
Even more damage was done to Sony when GOP (hey, wait a second…) released a whack of social security numbers were stolen along with a ton of personal corporate emails. Some frank discussions between executives and producers have been aired to the world.
Then, finally, came the threat of a 9/11 type attack if The Interview played in theatres. Some theatres started said they wouldn’t show it, so Sony pulled the film. The bad guys applauded and the President of the U.S. lambasted Sony for caving to terrorists or whatevs. At the last minute, Sony gave The Interview a limited release and then streamed it online. It’s made some reasonable money.
There’s still debate over who the hackers were. The FBI claims it’s North Korea, which would be logical, but several security firms claim it has to be an inside job at Sony. Regardless the fact remains that somebody has it in for Sony.
Go Home Spidey, You’re Drunk
One of the more interesting things to come to light is that Marvel was trying to work an agreement with Sony to get Spider-Man back. The deal would have had Spidey show up in Captain America 3, and Marvel starting their own trilogy with a new actor as Spidey. Sony wouldn’t let the character go without trying to keep their cruddy, talentless hands on it (it was phrased “creative control”), but Marvel quite correctly won’t agree to that nonsense.
With the deal falling through, Sony will probably continue making bad Spider-Man films sequels and terrible Spider-Man spin-offs (I’m still not sure how Sinister Six would work). After the failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it’s clear the studio has no idea what it’s doing. One can hope that Sony will continue to fail until they final agree to let Marvel have their character back.
It’s time to put Spider-Man back in Marvel’s hands.
Shane Hnetka is a Regina film and comic book nerd. He also writes Dog Blog’s weekly “Sunday Matinee” column at prairiedogmag.com.