If you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so, there’s something you need to know: Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked. Just about everyone with an Internet connection or a TV is aware of the Sony hack — we even know exactly how the hackers broke into Sony’s internal network — but there are still plenty of things that people don’t know.
For one, it’s still not exactly clear who the culprit is, though President Obama and the FBI are convinced the perpetrators have ties to North Korea. And amid all the chaos, there are also many revelations from the thousands of documents that have leaked, and new ones continue to pop up every day.
Now, we have nine new secrets we’ve learned over the past few days as people continue to sift through all of the information that has been released.
FROM EARLIER: How hackers hacked Sony
Everything we know suggests that the hack was a direct response to Sony’s upcoming movie “The Interview.” Hackers demanded that Sony cancel the movie’s theatrical release, and Sony ultimately complied in an effort to prevent the hackers from leaking additional data, and to prevent them from continuing to threaten Sony employees and moviegoers.
Now we know that the film cost Sony $44 million to make. That’s a huge chunk of change for a movie that now won’t be released in theaters (though it may still eventually be released). According to leaked documents, the film’s stars Seth Rogen and James Franco were paid $8.4 million and $6.5 million, respectively.
Thanks to leaked emails sent to and from Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, we also know that Sony screened The Interview for at least one U.S. State Department official, and it got a thumbs up.
Speaking of Lynton’s emails, we now know that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was not a fan of “The Social Network,” and he tried to stop the movie’s release. Another interesting revelation is the fact that Kanye West makes an appearance in The Interview, and we can see exactly how the rapper’s cameo came about.
For more information on these four newly uncovered secrets and five more, head over to CNET, which is linked below in our source section.
