Sony Pictures has denied bowing to threats from North Korea by dropping the film The Interview after Barack Obama claimed it had “made a mistake” in shelving the release. 
 
 In statement after the President criticised Sony for cancelling the release of the satirical film, the troubled company claimed had only done so after cinemas pulled out of screening it. 
 
 The studio said it is now “surveying alternatives to enable us to release the movie on a different platform". 
 
 Mr Obama said he was “sympathetic” to the studio during his end-of-year press conference at the White House on Friday, but stressed: “We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States.” 
 
 After leaking private emails and information about the company, hackers had made threats against cinemas who screened The Interview. 
 
 The Seth Rogen comedy depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. 
 
 This threat saw the studio cancel the Christmas Day release. 
 
 However, Sony Pictures chief executive and chairman Michael Lynton hit back at the President’s comments, telling CNN it had not “caved” following the hack the FBI confirmed North Korea is responsible for. 
 
 "We have not given in. And we have not backed down. We have always had every desire to have the American public see this movie," he said. 
 
 Sony Cyber Attack: The Worst Affected In Hollywood 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 1/13 Leonardo DiCaprio The actor's 'horrible behaviour' over Steve Jobs biopic was branded 'actually despicable' in leaked Sony executive emails Getty Images 
 
 2/13 Seth Rogen Seth Rogen and James Franco cancel Interview (North Korea-baiting film) press appearances after Sony hackers' threats 
 
 3/13 James Franco Seth Rogen and James Franco cancel Interview press appearances after Sony hackers' threats AP 
 
 4/13 Aaron Sorkin The screenwriter has said that the people who hacked into Sony Entertainment Pictures and released private emails are 'threatening the lives of whole families' Theo Wargo | Getty Images for Nantucket Film Festival 
 
 5/13 Amy Pascal Also leaked: Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal's email joking about President Barack Obama's race Getty Images 
 
 6/13 George Clooney Leaked email chain between Pascal and George Clooney appeared to reveal just how much the actor struggled to cope with the criticism of his The Monuments Men Getty 
 
 7/13 Barack Obama Sony executives Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal's leaked email exchange jokes about Barack Obama favouring films with black actors Getty 
 
 8/13 Channing Tatum Channing Tatum's leaked Sony executive email responding to the success of 22 Jump Street with Jonah Hill, which became the highest grossing R-rated comedy ever when it opened in June this year Getty Images 
 
 9/13 Jaden and Willow Smith Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's children Willow and Jaden Smith found themselves in the Sony inbox as well Getty 
 
 10/13 Mark Gordon DiCaprio's exchange with Jobs TV producer Mark Gordon (pictured) was leaked too Getty Images 
 
 11/13 Princess Beatrice Sony hackers linked to North Korea revealed Princess Beatrice earns $30,000 a year 
 
 12/13 Michael Fassbender Aaron Sorkin's leaked emails claimed he had no idea who actor Michael Fassbender (pictured) was Getty Images 
 
 13/13 Scott Rudin Information leaked has also included embarrassing emails involving high profile producer Scott Rudin attacking Angelina Jolie Getty Images 
 
 Mr Lynton said "the president, the press and the public are mistaken" over what had actually led to it stopping the release. 
 
 "We do not own movie theatres. We cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theatres." 
 
 He said Sony had “a number of options open to us and we have considered those and are considering them”. 
 
 Many have speculated that a possible release could be online, although Mr Lynton did not comment on this. 
 
 Seth Rogen in cancelled Sony Pictures comedy The Interview 
 
 He did say that no "major video on demand distributor" has been "willing to distribute" the film. "We don't have that direct interface with the American public, so we need to go through an intermediary to do that,” he told CNN. 
 
 In a statement following up from Mr Lynton’s comments, Sony added: "It is still our hope that anyone who wants to see this movie will get the opportunity to do so." 
 
 Explaining the decision not to proceed with the Christmas Day screening of the film, Sony had said. "Let us be clear - the only decision that we have made with respect to release of the film was not to release it on Christmas Day in theatres, after the theatre owners declined to show it. 
 
 "Without theatres, we could not release it in the theatres on Christmas Day. We had no choice. 
 
 "It is still our hope that anyone who wants to see this movie will get the opportunity to do so." ||||| Skip Ad Ad Loading... x Embed x Share On the heels of Obama's pointed comments, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton gave his first television interview to CNN, saying "We have not caved. We have not given in." VPC 
 
 A billboard for the film "The Interview" is displayed Dec. 19 in Venice, Calif. (Photo: Christopher Polk, Getty Images) 
 
 Calling the U.S. an "ill-famed cesspool of injustice," North Korea accused the Obama administration Sunday of being behind the making of Sony's The Interview and threatened it was already taking "counteraction." 
 
 In a lengthy, rambling statement carried on the state-run Korean Central News Agency, the reclusive nation charged the U.S. government "conceived and produced" the film out of the belief that such movies hurt the dignity of North Korea. 
 
 The statement, attributed to the Policy Department of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, said U.S. government officials "went the lengths of urging the movie makers to keep all scenes insulting the dignity of the (North Korean) supreme leadership in the movie, saying it is needed to 'vex the North Korean government.'" 
 
 The Interview, the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy, has been the apparent catalyst for the Sony hacking, which resulted in the massive release of that company's internal e-mails and documents. Almost 38 million files were stolen. 
 
 In the movie, the comedians play TV journalists commissioned to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The FBI concluded last week that North Korea was behind the attack, and Obama announced Friday the U.S. would respond "proportionally" to the hackings. 
 
 "I don't think it was an act of war," Obama said in a taped interview on CNN's State of the Union, which aired Sunday. "I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously." 
 
 Sony's pulling of the film undermined the principle of free speech, Obama said. 
 
 "We believe in the right of artistic expression and things that powers that be might not like," Obama said. 
 
 On Sunday, North Korea continued to deny it was behind the cyberattack, saying it did not know who the perpetrators are nor where they're from. However, it did praise those responsible, saying "we can surely say they are supporters and sympathizers," of North Korea. 
 
 North Korea also spoke out against Obama's Friday statement, calling his declaration a "disgraceful behavior" and saying North Korea has "already launched the toughest counteraction." 
 
 "Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction. Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans," the statement says. 
 
 "The army and people of the (North Korea) are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the U.S. in all war spaces including cyber warfare space to blow up those citadels. Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the 'symmetric counteraction' declared by Obama." 
 
 Obama, however, said Sunday the United States is not at cyberwar with North Korea. 
 
 "I don't think it was an act of war," Obama said on CNN's State of the Union. "I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately." 
 
 The cyberattack situation escalated early last week when the hackers posted a message threatening 9/11-type attacks on theaters screening The Interview, leading several major movie theater companies announcing they would no longer screen the film. 
 
 Sony pulled The Interview's Dec. 25 nationwide release on Dec. 17, a decision that Obama disparaged in the news conference Friday, saying, "I wish they had spoken to me first. ... I would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks." 
 
 North Korea charged Sunday the movie "is an undesirable and reactionary one justifying and inciting terrorism which should not be allowed in any country and any region." It also said it considered Sony's pulling of the movie "fortunate." 
 
 Sunday's statement by North Korea came on the heels of one Saturday in which the nation proposed a joint investigation and promised "grave consequences" if the U.S. did not agree to one. 
 
 "The U.S. should bear in mind that it will face serious consequences in case it rejects our proposal for joint investigation and presses for what it called countermeasures while finding fault" with North Korea. 
 
 The White House has continued to stand behind the FBI's conclusion North Korea is responsible for the attack. 
 
 "The government of North Korea has a long history of denying responsibility for destructive and provocative actions," White House National Security Council spokesman Mark Stroh said Saturday. 
 
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– The US has imposed new sanctions on North Korea over the Sony hack, and Slate writer Anne Applebaum finds it strange that a screwball comedy forced the hand of the White House, while "multiple reports of massive human rights abuse over many decades never had the same effect." This is a country that sends political foes—and their families—to labor camps for life and that lets its own people starve. And yet it took the hacking of a movie studio to trigger penalties. The problem is that "we can comprehend Sony," writes Applebaum, but we can't seem to comprehend the rest of what's going on there. "There is something about the harshness and the evil nature of the North Korean regime that defies imagination: It’s so bizarre that it makes us laugh rather than cry." But maybe there's hope from an unexpected source? At Vox, Alex Abad-Santos is glad that for all its crudeness and slapstick comedy, Seth Rogen's movie The Interview avoids portraying Kim Jong-Un as a "clownish Asian stereotype." Perhaps it's a sign that we're moving away from the representation of "goofballs" toward something more honest. Click for the full column, or for Applebaum's full column.