Skip to footer

'The Interview': How one theater is fighting back against the decision to pull the film

The Texas movie theater the Alamo Drafthouse is planning to screen the 2004 film 'Team America: World Police' on Dec. 27 following Sony's decision to cancel the release of the comedy 'The Interview.' 'Team' pokes fun at former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

|
M.S. Gordon/G. Gorman/Paramount Pictures
The movie 'Team America: World Police' was first released in 2004.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

[Update: Paramount, the studio behind "Team America: World Police," has canceled the screening at the Alamo Drafthouse and others that were planned.]

In the wake of Sony Pictures Entertainment's decision not to release their controversial comedy "The Interview," one Texas theater will still be bringing a satire of North Korea to moviegoers.

The Dallas/Fort Worth Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will be screening the 2004 comedy “Team America: World Police” on Dec. 27. The film, starring a cast of puppets, portrays former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a megalomaniacal villain.

The movie “The Interview,” which stars actors Seth Rogen and James Franco, drew controversy for its plot in which Rogen and Franco’s characters are given the job of assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. This past June, the North Korean government said in a statement about the movie that it is “the most blatant act of terrorism and war [that] will absolutely not be tolerated” and that “if the US administration allows and defends the showing of the film, a merciless countermeasure will be taken.”

This month, a group calling themselves the Guardians of Peace hacked the computers of various workers at Sony, revealing e-mails and data such as employees’ Social Security numbers, in addition to other information. Intelligence officials recently told the New York Times they believe the North Korean government was "centrally involved" with the hacking. After the Guardians of Peace invoked Sept. 11 in a threat to those who planned to attend “Interview,” Sony canceled the release of the film. The studio told USA Today that it is not currently planning to release the movie on any platform. 

So Alamo Drafthouse is is trying to make a statement. American flags, balloons, and other paraphernalia will be given out to those who attend, according to the theater's website. James Wallace, creative manager and programmer at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's Dallas/Fort Worth location, told the Dallas Morning News that cap guns will also be given to attendees. According to the site, the showing is sold out.

[Editor's note: The original version of this story misstated the cost of the movie tickets.] 

The screening of the movie is also a “quote-along,” so moviegoers will be encouraged to sing along to the movie’s tracks and yell out lines.

“A lot of the brilliance in TEAM AMERICA is timeless," the description of the event on the theater’s website reads. "Acting is still the greatest gift any human being can possess, and it's the only way to save America from the terrorists... And THAT is how true American heroes will be celebrating this year, but if you want to let the terrorists win...well, that's your prerogative.”

“We're just trying to make the best of an unfortunate situation," Wallace said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'The Interview': How one theater is fighting back against the decision to pull the film
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2014/1218/The-Interview-How-one-theater-is-fighting-back-against-the-decision-to-pull-the-film
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe