Independent Theaters to Show Sony Film; White House on Sony
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go. Breaking news here on CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me. A huge, huge announcement here as Sony reverses its decision to completely pull the controversial film "The Interview" from theaters across the country. The film studio has just announced the comedy about the assassination of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un, it will be sent to at least two independent theaters, one in Austin, Texas, the other in Atlanta, Georgia, for screenings, as originally planned on Christmas Day. This, as you well know, was the film that triggered cyber hacking, or as Sony would say cyber terrorism, from the film studio -- of the film studio and threats like this claiming if the film was released in any form of fashion, there would be retaliation referencing the 9/11 attacks. But the owner of the Plaza Theater in Atlanta says he is not scared to show it. He talked to CNN just a short time ago</s>OWNER OF ATLANTA THEATER SHOWING "THE INTERVIEW" (voice-over): Well, we certainly will be taking certain precautions. You know, I've been doing this a long time, and in many years there's been a lot of controversial films. And when you do have something like this, you take some different precautions. And, you know, exactly what we're going to do, I really won't announce on air. But, you know, I've played, over the years, "Fahrenheit," "9/11," "The Last Temptation of Christ." All those pictures have, you know, controversial stories and things behind it. So, you know, we're smart about it, though I'm not expecting anything of a major concern.</s>BALDWIN: Let me take a step back here because you know the fear of a possible attack, it was enough to lead Sony to pull the film, at least initially. A decision that did not sit well with the president of the United States. Here he was Friday.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sony's a corporation. It, you know, suffered significant damage. There were threats against its employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake.</s>BALDWIN: Let's talk about this with Brian Stelter, our CNN senior media correspondent, who's been breaking a lot of this for us, also host of CNN's "Reliable Sources," and David Cohen, senior features editor for "Variety." So, gentlemen, welcome. And, Brian Stelter, let me just turn to you here and ask you, I mean it's sort of like record scratch, what happened?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Sure does feel that way.</s>BALDWIN: It does.</s>STELTER: A week ago, they canceled the movie. They said they had no choice because all the big movie theater chains wouldn't support them with the release. But now they've cobbled together enough small theaters to do this. And we don't know exactly how many yet. They're actually still working on it. They say we'll have a better sense of that tonight as more theaters join onboard. But here's what the CEO, Michael Lynton, has just said.</s>BALDWIN: OK.</s>STELTER: He came out and said that, we've never given up on this and that they always wanted to release the movie in some way.</s>BALDWIN: Here you go.</s>STELTER: And then he went on -- and here's the statement. It says, you know, that it will be in some theaters, a number of theaters, on Christmas Day. And at the end of his message he said this. He said, 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. For Sony, that's what this now is. Yes, they would like to make a lot of money off this movie. They'd like to sell a lot of tickets. But it's also a statement at the same time.</s>BALDWIN: So, David, do you - I mean what Brian Stelter was essentially just saying was, we'll be watching the coming hours. We're talking about Austin and Atlanta for now, but there could be other theaters that will be releasing "The Interview." And really the other big question, and I don't know if you have the answer, but then might this lead those bigger chains, who initially had yanked the film, might they show the movie?</s>DAVID COHEN, SENIOR FEATURES EDITOR, "VARIETY": I have a little bit of a skeptical and cynical view on this. I know that Brian talked about them cobbling together some theaters to show it. I do not believe for one second that Sony had to cobble together anything. I think if they had wanted to show the movie, they would have been able to find theaters to show the movie.</s>STELTER: True.</s>COHEN: And I think that they were perfectly pleased to have these theaters pull out and give them a face-saving way out. I think what they basically said was, who will relieve of us of this troublesome film.</s>BALDWIN: That was their scapegoat you see.</s>COHEN: You know, so I don't believe that they had any trouble finding theaters.</s>BALDWIN: That's interesting. Do you want to respond to that, Mr. Stelter?</s>STELTER: Well, is what you're saying, that they could have always put it into small theaters. I think the issue was, they couldn't find thousands of screens -</s>BALDWIN: Right.</s>STELTER: You know, from AMC and Regal and Cinemark. But I think you're right, you know, if they had wanted to, they could have put it into our house cinemas all across the country and just concluded they weren't going to make nearly as much money that way.</s>COHEN: I want to be clear. What I'm saying is, I believe that they were looking for a way to pull this film and they sort of, with a wink and a nod, got the big theater chains to give them a way to pull it. But the big theater chains would have been willing to run it if Sony had wanted them to. So I - I think it's all been a huge effort in face saving.</s>BALDWIN: You know, David, your -- I've heard that. I've heard that theory before, definitely, definitely. Let me just pause for a minute. We talk so much about this film. We do have a clip. Let's watch.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most dangerous country on earth. Kim Jong- un's people believe anything he tells them, including that he can speak to dolphins or he doesn't urinate and defecate.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're telling me that man doesn't pee or poop?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody pees and poops. Where would it go otherwise? He'd explode.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he does talk to dolphins?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ahhh.</s>BALDWIN: So interesting, because it's one of those films maybe a lot of people actually weren't planning on seeing. This is like the kind of buzz you can't really buy for a film, Stelter.</s>STELTER: For sure.</s>BALDWIN: What they -- both Franco and Rogen, what, they've tweeted in the wake of this decision?</s>STELTER: Yes, this is really Seth Rogen's movie. This was his idea years ago.</s>BALDWIN: Yes. Yes.</s>STELTER: And he just put up a Twitter message. He says, "the people have spoken. Freedom has prevailed. Sony didn't give up. 'The Interview' will be shown." And then James Franco, his co-star in the movie, put up this Instagram and he wrote, "victory, the people and the president have spoken." And it's interesting we hear him calling out President Obama specifically because, you know, this flip flop by Sony, if we can call it that -</s>BALDWIN: Yes. Yes.</s>STELTER: Happened on Friday at the same time the president had said Sony made a mistake.</s>BALDWIN: Not necessarily a coincidence, I've been wondering.</s>STELTER: I don't think so.</s>BALDWIN: He mentions the president and he mentions the people. David, let me just get this poll. CNN has some polling. Six in 10 Americans believe Sony overreacted when they decided to pull "The Interview." David, final question to you. Do you think it was ultimately, even though if we're talking about scapegoating with the theaters, ultimately it wasn't necessarily even the people, but the president?</s>COHEN: Well, the president certainly denied Sony its face-saving way out of this. I think the other thing that Sony has to worry about is talent relations. They've got stars and directors all over town who have other options they can go to other studios, and they can look at this and say, hey, if I take a chance, if I take a creative risk and somebody for some reason threatens my movie, will you pull mine, too? So I think, for once, market force has actually put Sony in a position where they had to do something to -- their face-saving way out was to actually put the movie out in some form.</s>BALDWIN: Hmm. Hmm. David Cohen, thank you. Brian Stelter, thank you.</s>COHEN: Thanks.</s>BALDWIN: I want to move on to some other breaking news we have for you on this Tuesday, on this whole Sony story. The White House is now releasing a statement on Sony's decision to run "The Interview," this film, in at least some of these more independent movie houses. Let me go to the White House, to our correspondent there, Michelle Kosinski, who actually isn't at the White House, lucky her. She's in Hawaii, traveling with the president. So, Michelle, what is the White House saying in response to this?</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well this was a big deal to them. I mean we heard the president's strong statement about maybe what could have been done regarding Sony, saying that he wished Sony had called him first, which sparked this kind of back and forth between him and the company. Well, now today, at this latest announcement, the White House has just put out a statement. This is from Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz (ph) saying, "the president applauds Sony's decision to authorize screenings of the film. As the president made clear, we're a country that believes in free speech and the right of artistic expression. The decision made by Sony in participating theaters allows people to make their own choices about the film, and we welcome that outcome." You know, the president, when he spoke to Candy Crowley over the week, he said, you know, what are we supposed to do? If a dictator someplace else is able to impose censorship or self-censorship in this country, where does that stop? So this is something that the White House, obviously, cares about, has wanted to weigh in on. And we expect them to continue to weigh in on how this progresses, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Let me follow up with you, as I'm talking out of the side of my mouth to Brian Stelter, who's still sitting with me, who read my mind. My follow-up question is, and this is a question put to the president Friday at that big end of the year news conference. You know, we all know the president takes in some movies, right, over the holiday. And I'm wondering if he has made public that he would see the movie?</s>KOSINSKI: That actually was asked to him during his press conference, his end of the year press conference on Friday, and he said he did have a long list of movies to watch, that he wanted to get to, but he wouldn't say whether this was one of them. Surely, if he wanted to see it, somebody would make that happen. But we have no news on that at this point, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: All right, keep us posted on his, I guess, beach going and movie watching activities in Hawaii. Michelle Kosinski, traveling with the president, covering him there, thank you so much.</s>BALDWIN: Coming up, the stunning story here, more than 100 guns smuggled onboard flights between two major airports, Atlanta and New York. Some of these guns were loaded and actually inside the cabin with passengers. Carry-ones, folks. How the heck could this happen? And next, a black man shot and killed by a white officer, and this time the district attorney announcing there will be no charges filed, but may ring familiar, it is much more complicated. We're going to talk about that story out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, coming up.