AceShowbiz -

"The Interview" will make its way out online one day before hitting limited theaters on Thursday, December 25. The Kim Jong-Un assassination comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco will be released on YouTube, Microsoft's Xbox Video, Google Play, and Sony's official website. It will be available for rental on Wednesday, beginning at 1 P.M. EST.

"It has always been Sony's intention to have a national platform on which to release this film," Sony's chairman Michael Lynton said. "With that in mind, we reached out to Google, Microsoft and other partners last Wednesday, December 17, when it became clear our initial release plans were not possible. We are pleased we can now join with our partners to offer the film nation-wide today."

"We never stopped pursuing as wide a release as possible for The Interview. It was essential for our studio to release this movie, especially given the assault upon our business and our employees by those who wanted to stop free speech. We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day, and we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release."

"I want to thank Google and Microsoft for helping make this a reality. This release represents our commitment to our filmmakers and free speech. While we couldn't have predicted the road this movie traveled to get to this moment, I'm proud our fight was not for nothing and that cyber criminals were not able to silence us."

Meanwhile, Google's Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote in a blog post, "Given everything that’s happened, the security implications were very much at the front of our minds. But after discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country (however silly the content might be)."

"The Interview" was supposed to make its way out last week, but the release came to a halt when hackers vowed a 9/11-style attack.