‘The Interview’ A No-Go Internationally As Well

Deadline can confirm that international audiences won’t get to see The Interview either.  Sony’s statement Wednesday that the studio was pulling the U.S. Christmas Day release of the Seth Rogen-James Franco picture did not explicitly mention the film’s international roll-out, which had been set for after the New Year.

We have now learned that Sony has no plans to release the film anywhere for the foreseeable future. The news comes despite the lack- at least in public- of the same kind of terrorist threat against Sony’s international operations as was made against the studio’s U.S. release.

The Interview had been set to open across all major European territories in January and February.  Those plans are now off.

The development further highlights the unprecedented nature of the campaign against both Sony and The Interview.  

Attention can now shift to determining the long-term costs- for both Sony and the film business in general- of this debacle. Aside from writing off the tens of millions of dollars spent on making and marketing the film, Sony- lest one forget the victim of this crime- also has to contend with class action lawsuits, public embarrassment not to mention the loss of trust within the industry.

It remains to be seen what ramifications lie in store, if any, for the theater chains who so readily pulled the plug on the film’s Stateside release.

More worrying, long-term, may well be the precedent set by allowing a nefarious pressure group to kill the release of a film whose message, no matter how silly or irresponsible, they simply did not like. What impact will this have on other studio heads and film financiers when approached by filmmakers wishing to tackle controversial subject matters?

The Interview has left few answers and far more unsettling questions than anyone at Sony could ever have imagined.