Michael Lynton, the previous CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, now needs he had thought slightly extra rigorously earlier than greenlighting “The Interview,” Seth Rogen‘s darkish comedy a couple of plan to assassinate North Korean chief Kim Jong Un.
Lynton’s new memoir “From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn’t Own You,” co-written with Joshua L. Steiner, was excerpted within the Wall St. Journal Thursday, and within the e book that publishes subsequent week, the chief admits he could have made the choice too swiftly.
But when Lynton was knowledgeable on Nov. 24, 2014 that each one of Sony’s e mail methods have been down in addition to its manufacturing and monetary IT methods, he had no concept that North Korea could possibly be behind the huge tech meltdown affecting his studio. All he knew was that he, Rogen and co-chair Amy Pascal had enthusiastically determined to make a sensible comedy and have been planning to launch it in theaters on Christmas.
Causing one of many largest upheavals in Hollywood historical past, the IT meltdown irreparably broken 70% of Sony’s servers, and uncovered personal communications from executives and expertise in addition to private data.
“Over the next few days and weeks the situation only worsened as the hackers released stolen emails that revealed terrible judgment, confidential scripts and personal information — including my family’s,” Lynton writes in his memoir.
As a results of what was revealed within the emails, the studio misplaced relationships with necessary stars together with Will Smith, Adam Sandler and Angelina Jolie. Lynton says he spoke to President Obama eight months after the hack, when it was clear that North Korea had hacked Sony. Obama requested Lynton, “What were you thinking when you made killing the leader of a hostile foreign nation a plot point? Of course that was a mistake.”
“Not long after the hack, a mysterious website appeared, inviting journalists to type ‘Die Sony’ into any internet browser, where they could find tens of thousands of leaked emails. Emails in which studio executives criticized movie stars. Emails that had sensitive employment contracts. Then the hackers started releasing employee health records and Social Security numbers. They published pirated versions of upcoming movies such as ‘The Karate Kid.’ They even released the confidential script of the new James Bond movie. That’s the ultimate Hollywood sacrilege. As part of the leaked documents, my daughters’ health records flashed across the internet,” Lynton writes.
North Korea threatened theaters with violence and Sony ended up pulling the theatrical launch of “The Interview,” though it performed in just a few impartial theaters. It ended up changing into the primary main studio launch to premiere on the internet.
Lynton concludes that a few of his motivation for greenlighting the movie got here from a need to be accepted and “hang as an equal with the actors.”
“Just for a moment, I wanted to join the badass gang that made subversive movies. For a moment, I wanted to hang — as an equal — with the actors. I had grown tired of playing the responsible adult, of watching the party from the outside while I played Risk….The party got out of hand, and the company, its employees, my family and I all paid dearly,” Lynton says.
The former Sony boss additionally writes that “two other factors complicated the situation. First, Amy Pascal, my co-chairperson at Sony, and Stacey Snider, the chairwoman at Universal Studios, while friends, had a 20-year rivalry. Second, Rogen felt that he had to make each movie more and more outrageous to keep his audience engaged. So when either Stacey or Amy refused to greenlight a film because it was too offensive, the other agreed to make it. And guess what? It was inevitably a hit.”
“Sony found itself in the difficult position of not being able to say no, and Rogen found himself in the enviable position of getting approval for almost anything that he chose to present,” provides Lynton, who greenlit the movie instantly after a positive desk learn of the script.
Lynton’s memoir, “From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn’t Own You,” publishes Feb. 24 from Avid Reader Press.
