DALLAS — After Sony canceled the release of its comedy “The Interview,” one Texas theater plans to screen “Team America: World Police” instead.
The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Dallas/Fort Worth has announced that it will offer one free screening of the 2004 comedy instead of “The Interview” on December 27.
Sony announced Wednesday that it was canceling its Christmas Day premiere of “The Interview” after a threat warning moviegoers to avoid theaters where the film would be playing. The comedy, which stars James Franco and Seth Rogen, has sparked controversy because it includes a storyline about a plot to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
The Alamo Drafthouse had planned to screen “The Interview,” but “unfortunately these decisions aren’t always ours to make,” the theater said in a Facebook post.
The movie that the Alamo Drafthouse will screen instead also happens to be a comedy that involves North Korea. “Team America: World Police,” which was written by “South Park’s” Trey Parker and Matt Stone, includes a plot that centers on Kim Jong Un’s father, the late Kim Jong Il.
James Wallace, creative manager and programmer at the Alamo Drafthouse in Dallas/Fort Worth, explained to The Hollywood Reporter that the theater’s “just trying to make the best of an unfortunate situation.”
The movie theater’s screening of “Team America” will also be free of charge “because you can’t spell ‘FREEDOM’ without ‘FREE,'” the theater joked on Facebook.
As of now, it looks like “The Interview” is completely shelved. Despite speculation the comedy might be released digitally, studio Sony Pictures said in a statement that it “has no further release plans for the film.”