Earlier this week, we reported that North Korea had apparently hired Chinese hackers to attack Sony Pictures Entertainment, stealing sensitive information in the process and sharing it online with the world. The reasoning for the attack is their disapproval for the upcoming action comedy The Interview, which sees Seth Rogen and James Franco playing clueless news reporters that are hired by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong-un.
With that said, it seems no coincidence that a number of Sony’s hopeful Academy Award contenders were collectively uploaded to various file-sharing sites over the weekend. Among the films stolen are the positively reviewed World War II action drama Fury, period piece biopic Mr. Turner, and the remake of Annie, which doesn’t actually hit theaters until December 19th. Still Alice is also now floating around the Internet, and so is To Write Love On Her Arms, which is quite surprising given that the film isn’t set to release until March 2015. While it’s unconfirmed that North Korea is indeed behind this, it does seem likely.
It’s worth noting that things could have been worse for the studio. For starters, the hackers could have uploaded The Interview outright, which would have been disastrous. Sony also has other Oscar contenders like Foxcatcher and Whiplash that could have been leaked, although being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics might have been why they weren’t uploaded.
With The Interview now only a few weeks away from release, it will be interesting to see how this situation continues to play out. Is North Korea done with their attack, or is there more to come? Sound off below and let us know what you think.
