If the movies have taught us anything, it's that Christmas is a time for miracles. Days after Sony Pictures announced that no one could see Seth Rogen's and James Franco's movie The Interview because some hackers threatened to blow up the world for daring to make a joke about beloved North Korean tyrant and Dennis Rodman BFF Kim Jong-Un, the Alamo Drafthouse announced it will screen the film on Christmas Day as originally planned.
Drafthouse founder Tim League announced on his Twitter , "Sony has authorized screenings of THE INTERVIEW on Christmas Day. We are making shows available within the hour. #Victory." A ticket page for the Christmas Day premiere of The Interview went up earlier today and so far, two screenings of the movie have already sold out.
News of the screening across the Drafthouse's entire nationwide chain of theaters marks the end of a week of drama for the Richardson movie house that started with the cancellation of The Interview and continued when Paramount Pictures denied their request to screen a "Quote Along" of the Trey Parker and Matt Stone puppet comedy Team America: World Police in its place.
James Wallace, creative director for the Richardson Drafthouse, said his company remained determined to show the Rogen/Franco film if the studio would let them. He said League even tried to persuade the studio to let them release the film by creating an online petition with Arthouse Convergence, a collective of independent theaters, to convince the studio to release the film through independent channels.
"We didn't find out until this morning that we were going to get it but we stated all along if Sony wanted to show the film, we would be a venue for that," Wallace said. "We would show the film ,and once they pulled it, we didn't stop feeling that way."
Of course, there were serious concerns about the threats that originally prompted Sony to pull the movie, but Wallace said while they acknowledge them, they still insisted on offering the movie to anyone who wanted to see it.
"We were always going to show it and so weren't really worried about that then and we aren't worried about now," Wallace said. "You have to defer to the professionals and anybody whose opinion is worth listening to in this situation, and we take it very seriously. Any potential threat no matter how realistic or non-realistic is something to at least acknowledge ... We're focusing on the good, and we're excited to show the movie."
Wallace said right now, the theater's main focus is on the positive and the fact they have been given the chance to screen the movie as planned.
"It started out as pretty shitty situation with Sony having to pull the film and no matter what opinion is," he said. "I don't know all the facts and I'm sure it was a very hard decision for them to make. There was a lot of time and money invested in the film, and I'm sure it's not something they took lightly and people spoke up, people wanted to see film and believed in the freedom of expression and art and look what happened. That's the most American thing there is.
"To me, that's the happy ending to this story -- that something very powerful happened and people wanted to see something happen and they made it happen," Wallace said.
