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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has declared that Sony Pictures Entertainment "made a mistake" in shelving "The Interview" after the company's computer systems were hacked.
The satirical film is about a plot to assassinate North Korea's leader.
At a year-end news conference Friday, Obama pledged the U.S. would respond "in a place and manner and time that we choose" to the cyberattack on Sony. The FBI is blaming the hack on the communist government. North Korea denies the allegation.
Obama says he wishes Sony executives had spoken to him before pulling the film, saying "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship."
Sony says it had to cancel the movie's release since theaters were refusing to show it. In a statement, it says it's only cancelled the Christmas Day theatrical release of "The Interview" and its "actively surveying alternatives" to release the film on a different platform.
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APPHOTO CAET173: This photo provided by Columbia Pictures - Sony shows, from left, Diana Bang, as Sook, Seth Rogen, as Aaron, and James Franco, as Dave, in Columbia Pictures' "The Interview." When a group claiming credit for the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment threated violence against theaters showing "The Interview" earlier this week, the fate of the movie was all but sealed. Even though law enforcement didn't deem the threats of violence credible, theater owners and Sony undoubtedly considered the 2012 massacre of a dozen people in a Colorado movie theater. That attack came without warning, and there was no precedent for such mass violence against a U.S. movie audience. (AP Photo/Columbia Pictures - Sony, Ed Araquel) (5 Nov 2013)
<<APPHOTO CAET173 (11/05/13)££
APPHOTO CAET174: FILE - In this Dec. 17, 2014 file photo, a banner for "The Interview" hangs at Arclight Cinemas, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. When a group claiming credit for the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment threatened violence against theaters showing the film "The Interview" earlier this week, the fate of the movie was all but sealed. Even though law enforcement didn't deem the threats of violence credible, theater owners and Sony undoubtedly considered the 2012 massacre of a dozen people in a Colorado movie theater. Sony canceled the film's Christmas Day Dec. 25 release this week. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File) (17 Dec 2014)
<<APPHOTO CAET174 (12/17/14)££
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