UPDATE #3 - Dec. 30 - We very much regret that, due to technical difficulties, we will not be able to screen The Interview at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. We do hope to show the film at some point, keep an eye on this space, Twitter and/or Facebook for updates. If you purchased tickets online, please check your email for refund details. We continue to believe that no government, group or individual should threaten studios or cinemas with acts of cyber and/or real violence to prevent theater audiences from seeing any film, and we are pleased to see the movie doing so well in all its forms.

UPDATE #2 - Dec. 23 - Cinema Detroit will screen The Interview beginning January 2, 2015. Showtimes and more info to follow.

UPDATE - Dec. 23 - At 10:45 a.m., Sony approved screenings of The Interview at various arthouse and independent cinemas around the country, starting on Christmas Day. We are working on becoming one of these theaters. Keep an eye on this space, Twitter and/or Facebook for updates.

Today Cinema Detroit joined many of our colleagues in the independent cinema community Art House Convergence (AHC) in a request to show Sony Pictures’ production The Interview, which Sony has decided not to release theatrically.

Sony emails, content, and employee information have all been making their well-documented way onto the Internet as the company has recently endured a lengthy and embarrassing hack, allegedly perpetrated at the behest of North Korea.

On December 16, the terrorist organization allegedly responsible, the ironically-named “Guardians of Peace,” renewed their promise of violent attacks against any theater showing The Interview: “The world will be full of fear….Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)”

Major theater chains balked at screening the film, and the next day, Sony decided not to release THE INTERVIEW to theaters as originally planned. Planned screenings of TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE as an alternative were soon scuttled, as Paramount declined to offer that film as well.

However, we are not part of a major theater chain, and neither is the rest of the AHC. On December 20, AHC Director Russ Collins wrote an open letter to Michael Lynton, Chair and CEO of Sony Pictures and Amy Pascal, Co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group. The letter read, in part:

AHC today set up a petition so that members could express their willingness to show the film, which we signed.

For us, screening The Interview isn’t about protecting Sony’s profits, and it certainly isn’t about ours…we’d be showing the movie for free. It’s about preserving cinemas as an outlet for artistic expression and a dynamic public space for the exchange of ideas. We don’t know when or even if we’ll be able to show The Interview, and we understand there may be some amount of risk. However, we think it’s better to offer the film and let people make up their own minds whether to attend screenings or not, than to set a dangerous precedent by bowing to what is essentially anonymous intimidation based on a film’s content.

We very much appreciate Russ Collins’ leadership on this issue. If his name sounds familiar, it may be because he is also the CEO of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor and the founder of the Cinetopia film festival. Russ and his team at the Michigan have always been very helpful to us and the AHC has been a source of much information and encouragement.