NEW YORK: A cyber war of sorts has begun between the North Korean government and Hollywood film studios over the release of the film ‘The Interview” in which an assassination plot against Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-Un unfolds.

And it looks as though North Koreans are winning, as the Sony pictures whose website was hacked recently allegedly by a group working for Kim Jon-Un, has scared the film exhibitors.

The film industry and Hollywood stars have reacted furiously to the decision to pull the film after hackers threatened to launch terrorist attacks on cinemas that showed the film. Many stars called it a attack on freedom of expression.

The comedy film, which was due to be released in America on Christmas Day and in Europe in February, narrates a fake attempt to kill the North Korean leader. Hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace threatened to launch attacks like the September 11 atrocities.

Some of America’s biggest stars accused film bosses at Sony of bowing to bully-boy tactics of the hackers. Rob Lowe, who stared in the West Wing, said: ‘Wow’. Everyone caved. The hackers won. An utter and complete victory for them. Wow.”, says a report in a local newspaper.

Lowe compared the decision to pull the film to the former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement with Adolf Hitler. He tweeted: ‘Saw @Sethrogen at JFK (New York) . Both of us have never seen or heard of anything like this. Hollywood has done Neville Chamberlain proud today.’

Film-maker Michael Moore joked: ‘Dear Sony Hackers: now that u run Hollywood, I’d also like less romantic comedies, fewer Michael Bay movies and no more Transformers.’

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel branded the move an ‘un-American act of cowardice that validates terrorist actions and sets a terrifying precedent’. In a statement Sony Pictures said: ‘The studio, which has been shaken by hacker leaks over the past several weeks, said it respected and shared in the exhibitors’ concerns.

‘We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public.

‘We stand by our film-makers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.’ US investigators have said North Korea was behind the cyber attacks on Sony Pictures.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014