Twitter reacts to THE INTERVIEW being pulled from theaters due to threat.

Is it possible that the whole #SonyHack mess was perpetrated by the on-line platforms to make sure people never leave their living rooms?--Ira Deutchman

I fully support the #putitonline movement for The Interview. Screw the theaters cowering in fear and release your product to everyone. #Sony--Alex Billington

Theater chains will soon come out with statements about "patrons' safety." That will be a lie. They are afraid of being hacked themselves.--Josh Lincoln Dickey

.@RegalMovies, the same company whose CEO wants to introduce "texting safe" screenings? Blames Sony's "wavering support".--Moises Chiullan

The Interview, like Dr. Strangelove, sounds like a satire. Lives should not be threatened over a 90 minute comedy, regardless of the subject.--Jen Connors

Even if no one goes to see it, The Interview will end up being one of the most important films of the decade now. Funny how that happens.--David Neary

Are we learning anything new from Sony e-mail hacks re Hollywood?

I'm not linking to them here, but there have been plenty of lip-licking posts from various gossip and news sites about the private e-mails of Sony executives being recently hacked and revealed to the public.

Here's a few things I processed from what little I've read:
1. Studio execs still love to bad-mouth actors.
2. Women still aren't being paid as much as men.
3. It's more likely that disgruntled employees are behind this--not North Korea.
4. THE INTERVIEW had its climax toned down for the US version--and it will be removed for overseas viewing.
5. For an exec and a producer, it's not yet a post-racial society (regarding certain comments about President Obama and what movies/actors he may/may not like).

In conclusion, today's Hollywood isn't much different than, say, four decades ago.

[UPDATED 4/16/15: Wikileaks has re-released files; Sony has objected on privacy grounds.  At this point, the only thing I found worthy of public notice is current Sony exec Michael Lynton is on the board of famous think tank The Rand Corporation.]

SALT made me want to.....see INCEPTION again.

After reading the hype about SALT (especially how the recent Russian spy discoveries and swap occurred close to the film's release--though the central "deep cover" Russian spy gimmick is swiped from Don Siegel's 1977 TELEFON with Charles Bronson, Lee Remick and Tyne Daly), I expected reasonably choice summer action fare--particularly with this being director Phillip Noyce's (with a career ranging from the Australian classic NEWSFRONT to two good-to-very-good Jack Ryan films to the more recent Australian classic RABBIT-PROOF FENCE) return to big-budget American filmmaking.

Unfortunately, SALT is little more than 95 minutes of chase and shoot (with some violence that almost punches a fist through the balsa wood of the PG-13 rating), with occasional character beats/backstory to keep it from being completely tissue-thin.

And it doesn't help that SALT was released a week after the summer's tie-for-best-with-TOY STORY 3-film INCEPTION.

I hope that Angelina Jolie carries on with a viable A-list film career regardless of all the tabloid chatter.  It may be time for her to again opt for a studio-boutique project for her to excel in (like 2008's unjustly ignored A MIGHTY HEART) instead of listening to what's likely to be renewed siren calls from Universal for her to appear in WANTED 2.

[Train-wreck alert: Sony/Columbia has tagged the trailer for Michel Gondry's THE GREEN HORNET to SALT.  And it's fairly obvious that Gondry and star Seth Rogen had only a thirty-second meeting of minds;  Rogen and Sony must have been imagining a GHOSTBUSTERS approach to the subject matter, but it looks like a sequel to the superself-indulgent Bruce Willis early-90s caper comedy film HUDSON HAWK instead.]

Warner Brothers likely to get even more safe post-WATCHMEN.

[NOTE: The post below is to be read strictly for entertainment value. Irresponsible behavior is not encouraged.]

It's a reasonably safe guess that you, the reader of this blog entry, could conceivably make a prank call to Warner Brothers in the guise of a talent agent or producer. And you could even talk yourself into a chance at securing a meeting to pitch either a superhero project (preferably DC) or an adaptation of a self-help book or even a remake of an in-house property. Maybe you could say something like: "I know exactly how to make WONDER WOMAN a durable four-quadrant franchise."

With the box office underperformance of WATCHMEN (an uneven--sometimes effective, sometimes ubersilly--film which was probably the best attempt at ultra-adult comic book fare since the original, and definitely superior, ROBOCOP in 1987), it's safe to say that Alan Horn and the good folks of WB will be even more tippy-toe careful in what they greenlight in the future (another bellwether of whether "edginess", even the manageable budget variety, gets more chances to be bankable at Warners: the box office performance of the reportedly-megaraunchy OBSERVE AND REPORT with Seth Rogen and Anna Faris--opening next month).

At this point, potential pranksters could consider pitching WB on a PG-13 comedy adaptation of the 70s self-help book I'M OK, YOU'RE OK--and suggest Rainn Wilson as a hippieish 70s Marin County shrink who gets cryogenically frozen and thawed out in the late 2000s.

The cynic in me thinks that Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov would pay top dollar for such a pitch.

And, don't forget, the 70s sex manual JOY OF SEX came very close to getting made at Paramount in the early 80s as a vehicle for John Belushi. (It did get produced a few years later as a low-budgeter directed by Martha Coolidge and starring quirky cult-actress Michelle Meyrink. And it flopped.)

Safe to guess that lightning could strike twice.