The following interview with the cast and creators of The Interview—Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Evan Goldberg—was conducted by VICE on December 9, two days before the world premiere of the film in Los Angeles.
At that time, hackers calling themselves the "Guardians of Peace" had compromised SONY servers and leaked a trove of sensitive emails that exposed and embarrassed senior company officials. Nonetheless, the film was still on track to be released on Christmas Day.
On December 16, a new threat from the hackers promised a 9/11-style attack if the film was released as planned, and within hours the major theater chains across the country withdrew their support of the film. With no distribution, SONY announced that they had no plan to release the film.
Over the course of the following days, as SONY was pilloried in the media by high profile celebrities and politicians, including President Obama, for having caved in to the hackers, senior company officials were working behind-the-scenes to create an alternative release plan.
On December 25, as promised, SONY released The Interview using a coalition of over 300 independent movie theaters across the country. Additionally the film was also released on the film's website "seetheinterview.com" and via a number of other digital platforms including Google Play, YouTube, and XBOX.