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Sony vows to screen The Interview following Obama intervention

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By John Glenday, Reporter

December 22, 2014 | 2 min read

Sony has carried out a dramatic U-turn on its cancellation of The Interview after fallout from its earlier decision to scrap it continued to reverberate at the highest levels in America after president Barack Obama indicated he was prepared to speak to cinema bosses to seek an explanation as to why they were refusing to screen it.

Sony lawyer David Boies said: “Sony only delayed this. 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."

Boies added that Obama’s intervention ‘had been helpful in some respects’ but added he would have ‘liked to see it a little earlier’ and without the ‘blame the victim’ aspect.

Outrage has frown in the country over Hollywood’s acquiescence to threats from hackers, believed to be a proxy for the North Korean government itself, with Obama offering to personally intervene to seek explanations.

Obama said: “Had they (Sony) talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theatre chains and distributors and asked them what that story was. Of we set a precedent in which a dictator in another country can disrupt a company’s distribution chain or its products and, as a consequence, we start censoring ourselves, that'’ a problem.”

North Korea denies any involvement in an earlier hack of Sony Pictures servers and subsequent threats of ‘9/11 style’ attacks on cinemas screening The Interview – but has praised the actions.

Sony said its hands were tied when major theatres refused to screen the film but will release it in some form.

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