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An Act of War? The Interview Affair, the Sony Hack, and the Hollywood–Washington Power Nexus Today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2017

TONY SHAW  and
TRICIA JENKINS
TONY SHAW
Affiliation:
Tony Shaw, History Department, University of Hertfordshire. Email: [email protected].
TRICIA JENKINS
Affiliation:
Tricia Jenkins, Department of Film, TV, and Digital Media, Texas Christian University. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Film has been an integral part of the propaganda war fought between the United States and North Korea over the past decade. The international controversy surrounding the Hollywood comedy The Interview in 2014 vividly demonstrated this and, in the process, drew attention to hidden dimensions of the US state security–entertainment complex in the early twenty-first century. Using the emails leaked courtesy of the Sony hack of late 2014, this article explores the Interview affair in detail, on the one hand revealing the close links between Sony executives and US foreign-policy advisers and on the other explaining the difficulties studios face when trying to balance commercial and political imperatives in a global market.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 1 - 27
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2017 

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14 Rogen and Goldberg's previous films included Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008) and This Is the End (2013).

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16 Weinstein.

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24 Kimberly Owczarski, “‘A Very Significant Chinese Component’: Securing the Success of Transformers: Age of Extinction in China,” Journal of Popular Culture, forthcoming 2017.

25 Ibid.

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29 Email from Steven O'Dell to Mark Bradell, 20 May 2014, email ID 190640.

30 Email from Sun Yong Hwang to Steven O'Dell, 20 May 2014, email ID 201014.

31 Anna Silman, “Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's Controversial Comedy ‘The Interview’ May Not Be Released in Asia,” Salon.com, 11 Dec. 2014, at www.salon.com/2014/12/11/seth_rogen_and_evan_goldbergs_controversial_comedy_the_interview_may_not_be_released_in_asia.

32 Catherine Shoard, “Sony Hack: The Plot to Kill The Interview – A Timeline So Far,” The Guardian, 18 Dec. 2014, at www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/18/sony-hack-the-interview-timeline.

33 Council on Foreign Relations roster, updated list Nov. 2014, at www.cfr.org/about/membership/roster.html?letter=L; RAND Corporation Board of Trustees, updated list July 2015, at www.rand.org/about/organization/randtrustees.html; Abella, Alex, Soldiers of Fortune: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire (Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin, 2008)Google Scholar. On Lynton chairing a panel at RAND in Nov. 2012 called “How Hollywood Affects Global Policy” see www.rand.org/blog/2012/11/how-hollywood-affects-global-policy.html.

34 On the propaganda aspects of North Korea's reputation for kidnapping foreign nationals, including South Korean filmmakers and artists, see Williams, Brad and Mobrand, Erik, “Explaining Divergent Responses to the North Korean Abductions Issue in Japan and South Korea,” Journal of Asian Studies, 69, 2 (May 2010), 507–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Fischer, Paul, A Kim Jong-il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power (New York: Flatiron, 2015)Google Scholar.

35 Email from Charles Sipkins to Shiro Kambe, 3 July 2014, email ID 121175; email from Noriaki Sano to Stephen Basil-Jones, 23 June 2014, email ID 115070; email from James Zumwalt to Michael Lynton, 19 June 2014, email ID 124388; email from Michael Lynton to Nicole Seligman, 19 June 2014, email ID 135493.

36 Email from Kazuo Hirai to Michael Lynton, 20 June 2014, email ID 129953; email from Michael Lynton to Nicole Seligman, 19 June 2014, email ID 135493.

37 For Bennett's views and publications relating to North Korea prior to the Interview affair see www.rand.org/pubs/authors/b/bennett_bruce.html. For those during the affair see, for example, www.newsweek.com/north-korean-regime-out-control-294364 and www.rand.org/blog/2014/12/did-north-korea-hack-sony-pictures-entertainment.html.

38 Email from Bruce Bennett to Michael Lynton, 20 June 2014, email ID 116595; email from Bruce Bennett to Michael Lynton, 26 June 2014, email ID 139029.

39 Email from Bruce Bennett to Michael Lynton, 25 June 2014, email ID 139029.

40 Email from Bruce Bennett to Michael Lynton, 25 June 2014, email ID 128396; Bruce W. Bennett, “Preparing for the Possibility of a North Korean Collapse’,” RAND Corporation, at www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR331.html.

41 Email from Michael Lynton to Bruce Bennett, 26 Aug. 2014, email ID 12874; email from Michael Lynton to Josh Steiner, 25 June 2014, email ID 140055.

42 Lizzie Dearden, “Park Sang-hak: The Man Trying to Liberate North Korea Using Balloons,” The Independent.com, 31 Dec. 2014, at www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/park-sanghak-the-man-trying-to-liberate-north-korea-using-balloons-9951706.html; Laurie Segall, “Activists Plan to Drop ‘Interview’ DVDs in North Korea,” CNN Money, 18 Dec. 2014, at http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/18/technology/north-korea-interview-drop-sony/index.html; Paul Bond, “The Strange, Dangerous Sequel to The Interview,” Hollywood Reporter, 1 May 2015, 32–34. For Asian and Western press reports about the alleged demand for The Interview in North Korea and Kim Jong-un's efforts to keep the film out of the country see, for example, Eugene Kim, “Demand for ‘The Interview’ Is Shooting Up in North Korea and Its Government Is Freaking Out,” Business Insider, 26 Dec. 2014, at http://uk.businessinsider.com/north-korean-demand-for-the-interview-2014-12?r=US&IR=T; “The Interview in Demand Reports Dissident Radio Station,” Asia Radio Today, 30 Dec. 2014, at www.asiaradiotoday.com/news/interview-demand-reports-dissident-radio-station; Emily Greenhouse, “North Korea Sets Up Task Force to Keep The Interview Out,” Bloomberg Politics, 31 Dec. 2014, at www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-12-31/north-korea-sets-up-task-force-to-keep-the-interview-out?cmpid=yhoo.

43 Email from Megan Klein to Michael Lynton, 26 June 2014, email ID 82074.

44 Email from Dwight Caines to Michael Pavlic, 27 June 2014, email ID 25841; email from Megan Klein to Michael Lynton et al., 26 June 2014, email ID 64940.

45 Email from Jean Guerin to Charles Sipkins, 25 June 2014, email ID 128861.

46 Very few people seem to have interpreted The Interview in this way. On the film's far sharper criticism of North Korea's nuclear weapons strategy compared with that of the United States, for instance, see Kokas, Aynne, Tryon, Chuck, Gusterson, Hugh and Braun, Joshua, “‘Freedom Edition’: Considering Sony Pictures and The Interview,” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 60, 4 (2016), 719–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Email from Jean Guerin to Leah Weil, 25 June 2014, email ID 110482; email from David Steinberg to Dina Wiggins, 7 July 2014, email ID 115130.

48 Email from Seth Rogen to Amy Pascal, 25 Sept. 2014, email ID 22450; email from Kazuo Hirai to Amy Pascal, 30 Sept. 2014, email ID 82863; email from Ariya Watty to Amy Pascal, 27 Sept. 2014, email ID 32301; email from Seth Rogen to Amy Pascal, 14 Aug. 2014, email ID 28076.

49 Email from Seth Rogen to Amy Pascal, 25 Sept. 2014, email ID 22450. In February 2015 Pascal claimed she had been “fired” as SPE co-chairperson. Many commentators attributed this to the publication of Pascal's “racially insensitive” emails about Barack Obama following the Sony hack. Michael Cieply, “Amy Pascal Says Sony Pushed Her out of Studio Post,” New York Times, 12 Feb. 2015, at www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/business/media/amy-pascal-says-sony-pushed-her-out.html?src=recg&_r=0; Christopher Rosen, “Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal Apologize after Racially Insensitive Emails about Obama Leak,” Huffington Post, 11 Dec. 2014, at www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/scott-rudin-amy-pascal-apology_n_6310040.html.

50 “Japan Cabinet Approves Landmark Military Change,” BBC News, 1 July 2014, at www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-28086002.

51 “What If The Interview Had Been Made in Japan?”, 1 Jan. 2015, at www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/01/01/films/interview-made-japan.

52 Goldberg, “Sony to Digitally Alter THE INTERVIEW.”

53 Email from Bruce Bennett to Michael Lynton, 18 Aug. 2014, email ID 124708; email from Bruce Bennett to Michael Lynton, 17 July 2014, email ID 128351; Snyder, “North Korea,” 104–5. King was a firm supporter of international efforts to break down the “information barrier” that the North Korean government had imposed on its own people, especially radio and film. “Foreign DVDs are now being seen [in North Korea] by even larger numbers,” he told the US Congress on 30 July 2014, at http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2014/07/20140730304663.html#axzz3k7cnIJMD.

54 Email from Bruce Bennett to Michael Lynton, 17 July 2014, email ID 90469.

55 Email from Bruce Bennett, 15 July 2014, email ID 125349; Mi Ae Taylor and Mark E. Manyin, “Non-governmental Organizations’ Activities in North Korea,” Congressional Research Service, 7, 570 (25 March 2011), 11.

56 Email from Richard Stengel to Michael Lynton, 11 Sept. 2014, email ID 119224. On the US State Department's recent use of American Muslim rap artists, a strategy linked to its sponsoring of African American “jazz ambassadors” during the Cold War, see Hisham Aidi, “Hip-Hop Diplomacy,” Foreign Affairs, 16 April 2014, at www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2014-04-16/hip-hop-diplomacy; and Matthew Weaver, “US Agency Infiltrated Cuban Hip-Hop Scene to Spark Youth Unrest,” The Guardian, 11 Dec. 2014, at www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/cuban-hip-hop-scene-infiltrated-us-information-youth.

57 Email from Richard Stengel to Michael Lynton, 17 Oct. 2014, email ID 117082; email from Lynton to Stengel, 10 Nov. 2014, email ID 133736.

58 In Chinese Communist Party usage, the word “propaganda” or xuanchuan, is not negative. See Brady, Anne-Marie, “China's Propaganda Machine,” Journal of Democracy, 26, 4 (October 2015), 51–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Email from Rogen to Pascal, 15 Aug. 2014, email ID 45250.

60 Shoard, “Sony Hack.”

61 “‘The Interview’ Headed to Netflix as VOD Sales Pass $40M – Update,” Deadline.com, 5 Jan. 2015, at http://deadline.com/2015/01/the-interview-vod-sales-sony-1201353855; Gregory Wakeman, “Wait, Sony Lost How Much on The Interview?,” Cinemablend.com, at www.cinemablend.com/new/Wait-Sony-Lost-How-Much-Interview-69228.html; “The Interview,” BoxOfficeMojo.com, at www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=interview2014.htm.

62 The international outcry over The Interview inspired others to release films about North Korea. For instance, Amnesty International, a long-time critic of the North Korean government's human rights’ record, produced an online 15-minute documentary pointedly titled The Other Interview. This was a serious, first-person account of a North Korean woman who had apparently suffered at the hands of both the Chinese and North Korean regimes. The documentary is available at www.amnesty.org.uk/north-korea-other-interview.

63 Ellen Nakashima, “Why the Sony Hack Drew an Unprecedented U.S. Response against North Korea,” Washington Post, 15 Jan. 2015, at www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/why-the-sony-hack-drew-an-unprecedented-us-response-against-north-korea/2015/01/14/679185d4-9a63-11e4-96cc-e858eba91ced_story.html. The US government's claim that North Korea orchestrated the Sony hack was challenged by a number of reputable, independent security firms and analysts. Bruce Schneier, “Did North Korea Really Attack Sony?”, The Atlantic, 22 Dec. 2014, at www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/12/did-north-korea-really-attack-sony/383973.

64 Scott Bomboy, “The Different First Amendments Arguments about ‘The Interview’,” Yahoo! News, 24 Dec. 2014, at http://news.yahoo.com/different-first-amendment-arguments-interview-154408483.html; Paul Vallely, “The Sony Hack and the Ethics of Free Speech,” The Independent (UK), 28 Dec. 2014, at www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/theres-a-time-to-speak-and-a-time-to-keep-quiet-9946581.html; A. O. Scott, “On, Then Off, Now On Again,” New York Times, 25 Dec. 2014, at www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/movies/the-interview-with-james-franco-and-seth-rogen.html.

65 “The Interview, Review: ‘Farting Truth to Power,’” The Telegraph, 5 Feb. 2015, at www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturereviews/11392263/The-Interview-review.html.

66 Scott.

67 Patrick Carone in Scout, in email from Ileen Reich to Dwight Caines et al., 23 Oct. 2014, email ID 47903.

68 Email from Ileen Reich to Dwight Caines et al., 23 Oct. 2014, email ID 47903.

69 “The Interview Is a Truly Savage Work of Satire,” Vulture.com, 26 Dec. 2014, at www.vulture.com/2014/12/movie-review-the-interview.html.

70 Richard Brody, “How The Interview Handled the Assassination of Kim Jong-un,” New Yorker, 18 Dec. 2014, at www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/interview-handles-assassination-kim-jong-un.

71 Email from Doug Belgrad to Michael Lynton, 18 June 2014, email ID 17894.

72 “Satire or Propaganda: ‘The Interview’ or Don't Yell Fire in a Crowded Political Theater,” Indiewire.com, 22 Dec. 2014, at http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/satire-or-propaganda-the-interview-or-dont-yell-fire-in-a-crowded-political-theater-20141222.

73 Ibid.

74 Mike Fleming, “Hollywood Cowardice: George Clooney Explains Why Sony Stood Alone in North Korean Cyberterror Attack,” Deadline.com, 18 Dec. 2014, at http://deadline.com/2014/12/george-clooney-sony-hollywood-cowardice-north-korea-cyberattack-petition-1201329988.

75 Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto and Jeremy Diamond, “Obama: Sony Made a Mistake,” CNN.com, 19 Dec. 2014, at http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/19/politics/fbi-north-korea-responsible-sony.

76 The Interview, DVD, dir. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2015).

77 Kim, Christina H. and Kang, Juwon, “Reworking the Frame: Analysis of Current Discourses on North Korea and a Case Study of North Korean Labour in Dandong, China,” Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 56, 3 (Dec. 2015), 392–402, 393–94Google Scholar.

78 The South Korean authorities have been known to block activists’ air-dropping of DVD copies of The Interview during periods of increased tension with the North. See Dave Lee, “Balloons Take Tech War to North Korea,” BBC News, 29 May 2015, at www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32921210.