The first film to deal with the Sony hack is in the works from the team behind 2013’s Oscar-nominated documentary The Square.
Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer are working on a documentary that explores the cyberattack, whose twists and turns captivated Hollywood late last year, culminating with Sony’s Amy Pascal being fired as the co-chair post under CEO Michael Lynton in February.
The untitled film is expected to drop new bombshells. Sources say director Noujaim and producer Amer will put forth alternative theories about the hack’s culprit.
After the breach was detected November 24, focus shifted to North Korea, which had expressed outrage over The Interview. On December 19, the FBI and President Obama fingered the rogue nation as the perpetrator.
Amer and Noujaim, whose The Square chronicled the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and won three Emmys, already were working on a doc about international cyberattacks when the Sony story began unfolding, and they decided to use that hack–one of the largest and most damaging in corporate history–as an entry point for a broader look at the phenomenon of cyber aggression.
“The Sony story is an important chapter in this larger issue,” says Amer, who declined to discuss any roadblocks encountered or the film’s narrative specifics. “The analysts and experts we speak to see it as the 9/11 of cyberattacks, and the implications will be felt for years to come.”
