Sony Pictures Threatens Outlets After Yet Another Info Dump

After another unfortunate weekend for Sony Pictures, in which a veritable treasure trove of email correspondence, data, screenplays and other valuable information was disseminated online by hacking outfit the Guardians Of Peace, the embattled movie house is taking a stand, issuing a cease-and-desist letter to several US publications that have been covering the leak.

The three-page letter, which according to Gawker was received by the likes of The New York Times and Hollywood Reporter, was sent by legal firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner, and essentially demands that the companies in question destroy all material relating to the leak or face the long arm of the law.

"We are writing to ensure that you are aware that SPE does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading, or making any use of the Stolen Information, and to request your co-operation in destroying the Stolen Information,"  the letter read.

"In addition, if you have provided the Stolen Information to anyone outside of your company, we ask that you provide them with a copy of this letter, and request the destruction of the Stolen Information by the recipient," it continued.

"If you do not comply with this request … SPE will have no choice but to hold you responsible for any damage or loss arising from such use or dissemination by you."

The action, expected though it is, comes after an already significantly revealing few weeks, over which the Guardians Of Peace have disseminated countless embarrassing emails, unencrypted mountains of security data and even complete films such as Annie and Fury.  This weekend past alone, we saw new emails that insinuate that the Smith kids, Jaden and Willow, are box-office poison, while the screenplay for forthcoming Bond movie SPECTRE has leaked in its entirety alongside executive correspondence revealing a litany of creative disputes over the film's third act.

New correspondence has also come to light explaining that Matthew Knowles, the father of Beyonce, had approached Screen Gems chief Clint Culpepper in late 2013 about the possibility of making a Destiny's Child biopic — "I'm just not sure that it's not too soon," Culpepper wrote at the time — while an email sent to Sony in August from creative assistant Elon Rutberg has revealed that Kanye West is on the studio's radar as a potential film subject of his own, with the venerated rapper's name also being speculatively attached to a yet-untitled Christmas Eve film starring Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, due next year.

"I supervise all of Kanye's film and media projects, and we have a major film project coming up that involves both cinematic and technological innovation, so I naturally thought Sony and wanted to reach out," Rutberg wrote. "We premiered a multi-screen cinema experience to great response at Cannes 2012, and are looking to take the storytelling to the next level with a feature-length film, shot for an immersive cinema experience."

In addition, a lengthy missive detailed a series of in-house allegations from racism to sexual harrassment, studio co-chair Amy Pascal — whose name has popped up repeatedly in released emails — had some less-than-encouraging things to say about Aaron Sorkin, and, perhaps most damagingly, a leaked spreadsheet revealed that Sony kept sensitive information for literally millions of customers in obvious, unencrypted locations (just before the weekend it was learnt that Sony had suffered a server breach back in February and chose not to say anything about it).