In response to Sony's refusal to release The Interview over threats of violence from hackers believed to be angry over the comedy's plot involving the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un several theaters said they would screen Team America: World Police instead. However, Paramount won't allow their North Korean dictator assassination comedy to be screened either. At least that's what three independent theaters have said, the Daily Beast reports.
Three movie theaters say Paramount Pictures has ordered them not to show Team America: World Police one day after Sony Pictures surrendered to cyberterrorists and pulled The Interview. The famous Alamo Drafthouse in Texas, Capitol Theater in Cleveland, and Plaza Atlanta in Atlanta said they would screen the movie instead of The Interview but Paramount has ordered them to stop. (No reason was apparently given and Paramount hasn't spoken.) Team America, of course, features Kim's father, Kim Jong-Il, as a singing marionette.
North Korea had previously demanded Team America be pulled from theaters in the Czech Republic but the country refused.
"Obviously, it's absurd to demand that in a democratic country," a spokesman for the Czech Foreign Ministry said at the time.
There is no report that North Korea, or anybody else, asked for Team America to be banned from screenings this time around.