Are you "honeypotting" me?

Are you Honeypotting me?

With Crisis comes Opportunity: Why Sony should use The Interview to skyrocket Digital Distribution

"Estimates are that Sony will lose roughly $100 Million on pulling The Interview due to a cyberattack evidently organized by North Korea. But Sony, the rest of Hollywood, and the independent film industry stand to gain a lot more if they treat this crisis as an opportunity. "

A movie about two American journalist's journey to kill the Supreme Leader of North Korea at a prolific interview set in Pyongyang. What could go wrong? A lot apparently. In late November, Sony suffered a hack in its servers. Divulging personal information from many employees, including Sony Pictures Chairwoman, Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin. When they thought it couldn't get any worse, the hacker group, named The Guardians of Peace(GOP) threatened to make a "9/11 style attack" on certain theaters that were showing The Interview.  Immediately after the statement, movie theaters around the country refused to stop showing the movie and made sony ultimately pulling it from a theatrical release. Controversies arose, but then a Christmas miracle happened. Sony distributed the film in certain movie theaters and various websites including YouTube, Google Play, and iTunes. Boo-ya, Freedom of Speech!!! But what does that mean for censorship and distribution. 

In the late 1940, Chaplin came with The Great Dictator. A satirical take on Hitler's Nazi regime. At this time, it wasn't the best time to release such a movie. With the world at war and Hitler's Third Reich on its way, The Great Dictator was a slap on the face to The Fuhrer. Reports say that Hitler didn't make any comment, but he did watch it twice. Fast forward to 2014, Kim Jung Un and North Korea have made an uproar about it with hackers igniting it the match. Why are these two events with similar type of movies and similar situations have different results? We live in a time where the media is the most powerful weapon that can destroy a man. Take Lance Armstrong for example. A cancer survivor that struggled to race the Tour the France and win. Now has admitted to doping. His reputation destroyed by the media. Hitler didn't make United Artist pull The Great Dictator from theaters, but Kim Jung Un did. However, there is always a silver lining. 

This event caused a major outrage in Hollywood. Can a foreign dictator make decisions on a country's behalf? Can it censor anything they seem inappropriate? On Christmas, Sony decided to move on and release The Interview through On Demand. This has taught us that no matter where we are and what we see, freedom of speech isn't always there. The distribution on On Demand has taught us that there is always a way and digital distribution is the next best thing. Although I prefer a movie theater, digital distribution is the savior of the film industry. 

Now on behalf of the movie itself. It is stupid. It is funny. It is smart. It is good! I strongly recommend it because it doesn't take itself too serious and it doesn't need to be. It's one of those movies that you want to see because of the ride. It provides a strong message about the media and how it is stronger than death itself. The acting is superb especially from Randall Park, Kim Jung Un in the film. Go see it and drink a margarita!