'The Interview' premiere date: Sony to show movie on Christmas Day despite hacker threats

LOS ANGELES -- Sony Pictures will allow the release of comedy "The Interview" on Dec. 25 less than a week after pulling the film's planned release following a devastating cyber attack. Sony Pictures Chief Executive Michael Lynton said there would be "a limited theatrical release" in the United States of the comedy and said the studio was looking for more options to screen the film.

Sony Pictures last Wednesday canceled the Dec. 25 release after major U.S. theater chains pulled out of showing the film because of threats from hackers. It said it was "deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie."

Lynton said in Tuesday's statement: "We have never given up on releasing The Interview and we're excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day." He said Sony was trying to secure other platforms and more theaters "so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience."

The screwball comedy about a fictional plot to assassinate North Korea leader Kim Jong Un led to a cyber attack on the studio, which the U.S. government has blamed on North Korea.

North Korea has denied it was to blame and has vowed to hit back against any U.S. retaliation, threatening the White House and the Pentagon. The Sony hackers said they were incensed by the comedy and threatened violence against theaters that showed it.

James Franco and Seth Rogen, who star in the film as two goofy journalists enlisted by the CIA to kill Kim Jong-un, have since canceled almost all press appearances. The duo was previously scheduled to appear on "Late Night With Seth Myers," "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon" and other shows.

China said Monday that they oppose all forms of cyber attacks but there was no proof that North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony Pictures.

"Before making any conclusions there has to be a full (accounting of) the facts and foundation," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "China will handle it in accordance with relevant international and Chinese laws according to the facts."

U.S. President Barack Obama and his advisers are weighing how to punish North Korea after the FBI concluded on Friday it was responsible for the attack on Sony.

It was the first time the United States had directly accused another country of a cyberattack of such magnitude on American soil and set up the possibility of a new confrontation between Washington and Pyongyang.