Sony Hack: Activists to Drop 'Interview' DVDs Over North Korea Via Balloon (coming Jan.)

Hollywood Reporter ^ | 12/16/2014 | Paul Bond

[TigerLikesRooster]

Sony Hack: Activists to Drop 'Interview' DVDs Over North Korea Via Balloon

by Paul Bond

12/16/2014 4:03pm PDT

This story also appears in the Jan. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Whether or not North Korea is behind the Sony hack, Kim Jong Un better brace himself because The Interview is headed to his country. Human rights activists are planning to airlift DVDs of the Seth Rogen comedy into the country via hydrogen balloons.

Fighters for a Free North Korea, run by Park Sang Hak, a former government propagandist who escaped to South Korea, has for years used balloons to get transistor radios, DVDs and other items into North Korea — not to entertain the deprived masses, but to introduce them to the outside world.

Read more Sony Hack: First Lawsuit Filed Against Company by Ex-Employees

In the past two years, the Human Rights Foundation in New York, created by Thor Halvorssen, has been helping bankroll the balloon drops, with the next one set for January. The Interview likely won't be out on DVD then, but Halvorssen says he'll add copies as soon as possible. Halvorssen, whose group also finances the smuggling of DVD players into North Korea, says that the past dozen or so drops have included copies of movies and TV shows like Braveheart, Battlestar Galactica and Desperate Housewives. Anything with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone is also popular.

[TigerLikesRooster]

In time thousands of DVD video of 'Interview' will make its way into N. Korea through the backdoor, smuggled across Sino-N. Korean border, a lot more than those sent via balloons.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Old Teufel Hunden]

They better air drop DVD players as well. Keep in mind, this is a people who are starving to the point of eating tree bark. How many DVD players do you think they have? Hell, how much electricity do they have to play the DVD players?

[skeeter]

Hilarious.

THIS provides an indication of the proper way to fight terrorism.

[LittleSpotBlog]

Someone suggested on another thread that Sony should just put “The Interview” in its entirety on the Internet for free. Or they could broadcast it on network TV. Either way, it is sure to be many orders of magnitude more popular than it ever would have been without the N Korean hack.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Forgot to mention, how many TVs do they have?

[Flick Lives]

... now if the N. Koreans only had DVD players... and TVs... and electricity... and heat... and food.

[black_diamond]

Maybe Hollywood should stick to bashing Christians and conservatives. Bashing dictators or Islam (even newspaper cartoons) is too risky for them.

[Dixie Yooper]

Sony makes a movie that insults North Korea’s Exalted Leader. North Korea hacks Sony’s database and now Insults Sony’s Elite everyday. Where’s the popcorn?

[Tijeras_Slim]

Great idea... except it will mean death for any poor schmoe who happens to pick one up, DVD player or not.

[Dr. Sivana]

If I lived in North Korea, and saw one of those balloons dropping,I might well run the other way. These folks will torture and kill you over a soap opera. An AK-47 tied to a balloon, MIGHT give me a hill worth dying on.

[Mercat]

Excellent idea. Years ago Mr. Mercat and I were in the depths of the Amazon in a town called Iquitos which only had electricity when they had enough fuel to run the generators. We were staying with friends of our then brother in law. The wife stayed in her room all day watching I love Lucy reruns in spanish. I think that they had their own generator. No kitchen or indoor plumbing but I Love Lucy reruns. Strange place. No way in or out except by plane or river.

[Dr. Sivana]

They better air drop DVD players as well. Hell, how much electricity do they have to play the DVD players?

Used 8GB iPod Touch 2nd generations ($25 in bulk) can do the trick (should be precharged, as the batteries are weak ny now). Though I'd rather put something more edifying on it. The main value of this stunt is to annoy the devil out of the regime. I would also hate S. Korea to get hit over this, whether they had anything to do with it or not. Remember the Maine.

[DoodleDawg]

And how many North Koreans own DVD players? Just curious.

[newnhdad]

it’s actually a pretty big deal over there. They watch a lot of SoKo and American TV shows(albeit a few years old)via smuggled DVD players. They prefer the little flash drives because they’re easier to conceal.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Many villages have old second-hand Chinese DVD players, or laptops, though well-hidden.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Terrorist act or the most fiendishly successful promotional stunt in history?

[InterceptPoint]

Looks like a Must See Movie:

The Interview - Official Trailer

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Used 8GB iPod Touch 2nd generations ($25 in bulk) can do the trick "

You'll have to airdrop someone in to explain to the North Koreans how to use those ipod touches. I doubt people whose main concern is whether they starve or not today know too much about ipods...

[Aleya2Fairlie]

Hollywood needs to be very afraid, and not of hackers but rather technology. There is no longer any need to search for a buff, handsome or beautiful person to be the next Hollyweird sensation. A good computer whiz can whip one up that doesn’t require all the bells and whistles to keep them happy. What’s more, they can be virtually perfect physically and modeled to fit the latest tastes of the general population.

The movie “Simone” starring Al Pacino wasn’t viewed as a blockbuster in its day but I think it was prophetic.