reporting today. so once again, in a winning streak that began with china and climate change and extended through immigration, and last week s historic decision to send an american ambassador to havana, re-opening diplomatic relations with cuba, president obama has a hot hand. editor at large with the hollywood reporter. and was a reporter for the washington post. ted johnson, as we all know now is senior editor at variety. today sony announced it will release the interview on christmas day in as many as several hundred theaters. sony s ceo put out a statement bearing what seems to me very hard to believe. quote, we have never given up on releasing the interview. and we re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on christmas day. at the same time, we re continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience. we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempt
be showing this film. how did you find that sony wanted to release this on christmas and why were you willing to do so? well, we were part of the original plan with sony to release on christmas eve. of course, it was canceled. and last night we got the e-mail and the telephone call around 11:00 p.m. stating that they were ready to go on christmas day if we were ready and that s where we are today. we said yes and here we are. michael, what was the explanation that they gave you? well, they didn t. they just let me know that it was available. i had texted them that if they had changed their mind, we were ready to go at a moment s notice. that was at 9:00 in the morning and at 11:00 that same day, we got the phone call, which is very odd from a studio at 11:00 at night. who did you hear from?
the ceo himself? we heard from jeff wayne, the executive that handles the southern region for sony distribution. he called myself last night and knew that we were behind the film and on the last go around we were the only ones still going to play it in atlanta. wow. so we got first dibs on it and we re ready to go. the day is coming. it s a very big day. obviously there were threats about moviegoers, that there would be some sort of 9/11 attack on that kind of scale. are you concerned? are you worried for your patrons, employees, there, any efforts to beef up security while this movie is playing? sure. there absolutely is. first of all, we always take concerns like this seriously. i don t expect to have a problem but we would be foolish if we didn t take different precautions, perhaps what somebody could carry into a theater or along those types of
unknown, at least as of now. let s get straight to our senior media correspondent, brian stelter. i take it sony has just issued a statement? they have. i think we can put it on screen for the viewers to read at home. it s from michael lynton, the ceo of sony pictures. he says the movie will come out in limited release on christmas. it says, we have never given up on releasing the interview and we re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on christmas day. at the same time, we are he s not naming the number of theaters. sony doesn t know the number yet. they re still working on it as we speak trying to figure out how many theaters can get copies of this movie by christmas day so they can show it in theaters. number two, i think the more interesting part of the statement is when they say, we re continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters. that means some sort of video on
individual, if they want to see the film, not someone else in another country. michael, are you going to be watching? oh, yes. i will. get your popcorn ready. thank you so much. merry christmas. merry christmas. i ll check back in with you and let me know how it goes. will do. now for what the nearest movie release could mean for the relationship between the u.s. and north korea. joining me is the author of genesis code and brian stelter, host of reliable sources. jamie, it s hard to believe it was just a week ago when we got that obscure message from hackers that was going to threaten anybody that went and saw that movie on christmas day, was going to be in big trouble, making references to 9/11.