Sony to release 'The Interview' in the US

Sony Pictures Entertainment issued a statement on Tuesday confirming the release of "The Interview" in more than 200 US theaters on December 25.

"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," said Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Entertainment. "At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience."

Lynton also thanked everyone involved in the satirical picture, which portrays a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"While we hope this is only the first step of the film's release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech," he said.

Director and actor Seth Rogan celebrated via the micro-blogging website Twitter:

US cinemas agree to screen comedy

The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas and the Plaza Atlanta in Georgia were the first cinemas to say on Tuesday that they would screen the film.

Last week, Sony canceled the Christmas Day release of "The Interview," in which Seth Rogen and James Franco play TV journalists recruited to assassinate Kim.

The decision came after the company was hit by a major cyberattack on its internal computer network that US authorities have blamed on Pyongyang.

In return, North Korea denounced the movie as a terrorist threat and said it could "prove" it had nothing to do with the Sony hacking scandal.

Following the hack, Sony received anonymous threats that cinemas showing the film would face violent attacks.

In response, it canceled the film's release and removed mention of "The Interview" from its websites.

North Korea suffered sweeping Internet outages in an apparent attack on Monday, following vows from US President Barack Obama of a "proportionate response" to what he called North Korea's "cyber vandalism" of Sony.

The White House and State Department declined to say whether the US government was responsible. Sony was widely criticized, including by Obama himself, for bending to the anonymous threats and canceling the film's release.

The US president described the cancelation of the film's release as "a mistake" that went against American principles of free speech.

lw/glb ( AP, AFP)