Sony hacks: leaked E-mails on President Obama's tastes in movies
[More behind here]
The Sony hacks (about 100 terrabytes were downloaded) are a ongoing source of indigestion for the studio. Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin have apologized after racially insensitive emails they sent to each other leaked online as part of a massive hack of Sony Pictures.
In the emails, published by BuzzFeed on Wednesday night, Pascal and Rudin discussed what movies President Barack Obama would probably count among his favorites. "'Ride-Along,'" Rudin wrote. "I bet he likes Kevin Hart." Other films with black casts that Pascal and Rudin presumed Obama would enjoy included "Django Unchained," "12 Years A Slave," "Lee Daniels' The Butler" and "Think Like A Man Too."
Rudin and Pascal have both issued written apologies today.
Salaries for many Sony employees reveals that there are seventeen U.S. employees of Sony Pictures with “annual rates” of $1 million or more. Of these seventeen, only one - Amy B. Pascal, the co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment and chairman of SPE’s Motion Picture Group - is a woman. Pascal’s annual rate is $3 million, according to the spreadsheet, the highest on the list, and the same amount earned by Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. One other observation to make about Sony Pictures’ top-paid executives is that they’re almost entirely white. From some quick Internet searching, fifteen of the seventeen appear to be Caucasian, one (Dwight R. Caines) appears to be African-American, and one (Man Jit Singh) appears to be South Asian.
The real LOLz are Sony's Powerpoint presentations.
Some of the leaked E-mails are a hoot:
While considering Michael Fassbender for the Jobs role, Michael DeLuca, president of production at Sony studio Columbia, emailed that the actor’s role in Shame “just makes you feel bad to have normal-sized male genitalia.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that leaked documents also detailed a plan to combine the Jump Street and Men in Black franchises into one film for 2016 or 2017. The film, which reportedly doesn’t have a script yet, would star Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum interacting with the Men in Black universe. Prior Men in Black stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were not expected to be included prominently in the film.