The Sony hacking group Guardians of Peace has demanded the studio “immediately” pull James Franco-Seth Rogen comedy “The Interview.”
“Stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War!” said a note published to GitHub purporting to be from the group known as Guardians of Peace.
“We have already given our clear demand to the management team of SONY, however, they have refused to accept,” said the note. “It seems that you think everything will be well, if you find out the attacker, while no reacting to our demand. We are sending you our warning again.”
The hack left current employees and those who stopped working at Sony as far back as 2000 with their personal information — including salaries and home addresses — being leaked to various news outlets and over BitTorrent.
After playing coy in the face of rumors that North Korea is behind the hacking as retaliation for “The Interview” — which revolves around an assassination attempt on Kim Jung-un — the country reportedly denied involvement, calling the accusations “another fabrication targeting the country.”
The new message demanding the pulling of the movie seems to contradict that there is no North Korea connection, as does other evidence linking the hackers to Korea-related machines and time zones. Earlier reports indicated findings from Sony, the FBI and private security firms turned up evidence that the malware was allegedly created on a machine with Korean language settings, was created during Korea-based hours and shares similarities to previous attacks attributed to North Korea.
The newest note posted denies involvement in the threatening e-mail sent to Sony staffers last week. “We know nothing about the threatening email received by Sony staffers, but you should wisely judge by yourself why such things are happening and who is responsible for it,” said the new note.
“The destiny of SONY is totally up to the wise reaction & measure of SONY,” it concluded.
11 Hollywood Hacker Movies: From an Angelina Jolie Stinker to a Potential Oscar Winner (Video)
"Hackers" (1995): It's only on the top of the list because of the name, since this cyberpunk adventure starring Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller and Matthew Lillard didn't exactly impress critics. It was, however, on the forefront of predicting a cyber crime wave that has finally hit Hollywood.
"The Net" (1995): The trailer tells viewers that "computer analyst Angela Bennett was just doing her job when she stumbled onto something she never should have seen." The same could be said about future Oscar winner Sandra Bullock, who was just doing her job by leading the cast of this terrible science fiction movie nobody should have seen. Still, people around the globe paid $110 million to see it in theaters.
"Antitrust" (2001): This Silicon Valley techno thriller earned "Cruel Intentions" star Ryan Phillippe his first million-dollar paycheck, which ended up being 1/18 of what the entire movie made in theaters. The critically panned MGM release followed a gifted computer programmer being given a dream job by a Bill Gates-like genius who will do whatever it takes to make sure his computer firm remains the most powerful in the world.
"Live Free or Die Hard" (2007): This worthy addition to the beloved Bruce Willis action franchise revolved around John McClane joining forces with a young hacker (Justin Long) to stop a cyber terrorist (Timothy Olyphant) from crippling Washington D.C. with his keyboard. Fortunately for America, the world's toughest cop was too old at that point to understand technology, so his fists won out in the end.
"The Matrix" (1999): Keanu Reeves' character in this sci-fi classic was a computer hacker before he was "the One," and the Wachowski siblings went ahead and ruined the franchise by completing the trilogy that never lived up to fans' expectations. But hey, remember the first time Neo dodged all those bullets in slow motion? Yeah. That was awesome.
"WarGames" (1983): Matthew Broderick proved in this Cold War thriller that hacking into your school's computer system to change your grades is a gateway activity that could lead to accidentally starting global thermal nuclear warfare. In his defense, this movie makes playing global nuclear warfare from your desktop computer look really fun.
"Swordfish" (2001): Long story short, Hugh Jackman plays a hacker hired by John Travolta to help him steal millions of dollars to pay Berry to show her breasts, or something like that.
"Firewall" (2006): Cyber criminals force Harrison Ford into robbing his own bank when they break into his home and hold his family hostage. It wasn't very good, but at that point in Ford's career, just about anything could have been considered a step up from "Hollywood Homicide."
"Blackhat" (2015): This movie hasn't hit theaters yet, but since the majority of movies about hackers aren't memorable for being good, here's to hoping director Michael Mann's will be. Chris Hemsworth stars as the sexiest hacker alive who is released from prison to help law enforcement catch a cyber criminal threatening to take down international financial markets.
"We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists" (2012): We've all read about Anonymous at some point or another -- the hackers united under a Guy Fawkes mask and a mission for truth -- and this documentary charts the organizations rise and evolution, while even unmasking a few members.
"The Internet's Own Boy" (2014): This documentary about hacker and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz just landed on the short list of films competing in the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature, and for good reason. It explores the computer prodigy's relationship with technology, and how its affecting our civil liberties.
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Sony is reeling from being hacked, but Hollywood has been producing stories around cyber crime for years. Here are 11 of the most memorable.
"Hackers" (1995): It's only on the top of the list because of the name, since this cyberpunk adventure starring Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller and Matthew Lillard didn't exactly impress critics. It was, however, on the forefront of predicting a cyber crime wave that has finally hit Hollywood.
