George R. R. Martin is not only the fantasy mastermind behind the Game of Thrones novels, but on a more recent note, he has joined the list of those who are outraged and infuriated by Sony’s decision of officially canceling the release of The Interview. The opening day of the comedy film was set for 25 December 2014, but hack threats made it possible that the movie would not air on its pre-established date. Game of Thrones creator offers to screen the banned production into his own cinema.
This outraging situation worsened once threats of bomb placing in theaters which would screen the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy emerged and comparisons with 9/11 events were made. The result is that Sony withdrew the picture from cinemas and the reason behind all the fuss is the plot of the movie, which follows the assignment of the leads to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. George R. R. Martin offers now an alternative for those who wish to watch the comedy action movie, as he offers to screen The Interview in his Jean Cocteau Santa Fe Cinema and formulates an invitation in that regard for Seth, in a Live Journal post. The Game of Thrones writer engages in sarcastic comparisons of the current situation with past productions: ‘’The level of corporate cowardice here astonishes me. It’s a good thing these guys weren’t around when Charlie Chaplin made The Great Dictator. If Kim Jong-Un scares them, Adolf Hitler would have had them (…) in their smallclothes.’’
The outrage of George R. R. Martin is not directed towards a great movie which finds itself in the impossibility of being aired. No. The emphasis is put on the inability of a great industry to face some North Korean threats based solely on Kim Jong-Un objections towards mockery. He states: ‘’I haven’t seen The Interview. I have no idea how good or bad a film it is. It might be hilarious. It might be stupid and offensive and outrageous. (Actually, I am pretty sure about the ‘outrageous’ part). It might be all of the above.’’ Furthermore, George R. R. Martin addresses the problem directly: ‘’Whether it’s the next Citizen Kane or the next Plan 9 from Outer Space, it astonishes me that a major Hollywood film could be killed before release by threats from a foreign power and anonymous hackers.’’
For now, the matter of The Interview is grey and still unsolved, but George R. R. Martin and his cinema is an example of a problem solver. If Seth Rogen would accept the forwarded invitation and just go to Santa Fe and air that movie already, all the fuss and the media attention around The Interview would vanish. But this might be the pending problem behind the apparently unsolvable North Korean problem. That The Interview pulled a 10 on IMDb is argument enough in that regard.