It seems not a day has gone by without some new piece of information bubbling to the surface from the Sony hack that happened two weeks ago.
As you probably know, the hack first started in late November when a menacing skull appeared in the emails of Sony employees from a group known as GOP (Guardians of Peace) threatening to release confidential information if their demands were not met. What those demands are exactly has never been made entirely clear, but all sources point to Seth Rogen and James Franco’s new comedy “The Interview.” The movie, which depicts the two actors traveling to North Korea to assassinate leader Kimg Jong-Un was labeled a threat by North Korea when the movie was announced back in June.
North Korea has denied responsibility for the hack, but said they’re happy that it happened. North Koreans barely have internet access, but it’s been reported that they might be working with a hacking group known as Unit 121, possibly working from somewhere in China.
So, regarding this Sony hack that has the company in a public relations nightmare and clinging on for dear life, just what has transpired so far? Well, for starters, a lot of Sony employees have had their emails and salaries leaked, and certain celebrities probably aren’t too happy with the company. Let’s rummage through all that Sony dirty laundry that’s been made public.
Monday, November 24th
Sony employees log into their emails to find creepy message below greeting them. Employees are either sent home or told to do work the old fashioned way with pen and paper.
Saturday, November 27th
A bevy of unreleased or recently released Sony films hit the internet, including: “Annie,” “Still Alice,” “Mr. Turner,” “To Write Love On Her Arms,” and “Fury.” In just two days Brad Pitt’s war movie “Fury” was downloaded over 800,000 times.
Monday, Dec 1st – Wednesday, Dec 3rd
On Monday, the FBI launches and investigation into the matter, and on Tuesday Sony’s top 17 executives have their salaries, home addresses, and job titles released to the public.
On Wednesday, Seth Rogen and James Franco have their paychecks for “The Interview” released. Seth made a reported $8.4 million and James Franco $6.5 million for his. We also learn that Kevin Federline made $5,000 for a cameo (not too shabby.)
Thursday, Dec 4th
The world finds out that Sony employees hate Adam Sandler movies and are jealous of what the other studios are doing.
One Sony staff member had this to say about the studio’s contract with Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore Productions:
“There is a general “blah-ness” to the films we produce. Althought we manage to produce an innovative film once in awhile, Social Network, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we continue to be saddled with the mundane, formulaic Adam Sandler films.”
Sunday, Dec 7th
North Korea responds to the accusations of being behind the hack, but denies any responsibility. (This was to be expected, as hackers don’t typically raise their hand and take credit for their cyber crimes.)
A spokesman of the country’s National Defense Commission released a statement explaining North Korea didn’t know “for what wrongdoings [Sony] became the target of the attack,” he speculated that it “might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers” of the country who want to help “put an end to US imperialism.”
Monday, Dec 8th
The GOP hackers send a message to Sony writing that they had given “their clear demand to the management of Sony, however, they refused to accept.” The hackers then basically laughed in the face of the company and the FBI and released a list of aliases that celebrities used when working on projects. Among them we learn that Jessica Alba goes by “Cash Money,” Tom Hanks goes by “Harry Lauder,” Toby Maguire goes by “Neil Deep,” and Jude Law goes by “Mr. Perry.”
Sony CEO, Michael Lynton sent an email assuring staffers that the company was doing everything it could to help the FBI track down the hackers and protect employees social security numbers.
Wednesday, Dec 10th
The GOP releases nearly all of the emails sent between Sony executives, and we find out that executives Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin had a nasty email exchange that resulted in the studio losing the Steve Jobs movie.
We also learn that Scott Rudin and Sony referred to Angelina Jolie as a “spoiled brat with an ego” when she demanded to work with director David Fincher on a project. And among possibly one of the weirdest revelations, we learned that Sony is trying to do a “21 Jump Street/Men in Black” crossover movie.(Yeah, it sounds super weird.)
That’s all for now, but who knows what other Sony bombshells the GOP will drop before “The Interview” comes out this Christmas. That is, assuming the studio doesn’t bow out and pull the movie.