To: Amy Pascal, Sony Productions
Warning: Please make sure that no hackers from North Korea or any place else can read this before opening below note:
We should talk re: biggest leak yet re my film The Interview and news media nonsense promoting risk of terrorism attacks at movie theaters made worse by a blog posting at marcom and PR advisory firm “The JLC Group …”
“Dec 17…Sam Goldywn and Jack Warner are rolling in their graves thanks to news media coverage of Sony-produced parody motion picture profiling North Korea and dictator Sum Dum Fuk aka Kim Jung-un.
The publicity machine is operating on all 8 cylinders it seems now that Sony has suspended the release of its holiday season hit one week prior to the scheduled release of the The Interviews, a film which the producers have banked on to be the next generation of Sacha Baron-Cohen’s spoof film profiling a Kazhakstan dictator named Borak, which not including its sequel, has grossed more than $250mil since its 2006 release. Not chopped liver…
After all, a parody film of a 3rd generation, basket-ball-loving nutcase of a dictator who is better known in international diplomatic circles as the “King Crackpot of North Korea,” is destined to be a box office hit. We’re talking about a film that will be this generation’s “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World”, an epic comedy..
Let’s back up for a minute. Is it possible that Sony and Seth Rogen-sponsored spin masters were enlisted to stage the entire series of events that have taken place this past week, starting with the headline story that Sony emails were hacked by North Korean cyberterrorism experts, and then revealing top secret e-mail exchanges about “Angela Jolie the bitch” and smart-ass jokes about President Obama?? And less than 3 days later, Sony announces that terrorism threats targeting movie theaters that show “The Interview” had first had Sony deferring to theater operators as to whether they want to show the film, but hours later, they announced they would officially suspend distribution to theaters, and that they have been passed on information about those threats to the FBI.
Here’s this PR Guru’s projection of what happens next: This whole thing was a set-up. Selling films on line is 10x more profitable than via theaters for companies like Sony. No later than Dec 21, Sony will announce a “force majeure” event that immediately cancels the film theatrical distribution contracts they signed with theater chains due to” terrorism threats.” All distribution deals are canceled, and Sony will now sneak in (Tora, Tora, Tora-style) and bypass the distributors and the theatres and take the film straight to the web and pay-for-view at $19.95 per view. The ‘free publicity’ thanks to the hacking and then the threats surrounding the film is already reaching every corner of the globe. Instead of several millions, we now have hundreds of millions of people who want to watch this move. We can thank
CNN for that. Even the next James Bond film doesn’t get this much coverage. Sony is betting that worldwide sales from online will be $2billion during the first week alone, because everyone will want to see it before North Korea launches an attack against the United States… Think about the sequel rights value. OMG.
The preview trailer will be the best upsell: “Warning, your ordering this movie online or via your cable TV provider may result in North Korean spies learning of your location and sending short, fat Asian people in tight-fitting uniforms to your house. Do not feed them any snacks, they might explode.”
Sony Stages Best PR Stunt Ever With North Korea Plot
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