Sony to release The Interview, opening Christmas Day at Osio Cinemas.

Last week the lede read, "Bad day for artistic freedom, good day to be a country run by a thug government."

Talk about a turnaround. Today the lede is, "Score one for artistic freedom, because The Interview is coming to town."

Sony Pictures, which had temporarily crumpled under the weight of a massive cyberattack aimed at thwarting the release of the comedy about an assassination attempt on North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, announced earlier today it would release the flick to premium video on-demand on Christmas Day—and to any theater that wanted to play it.

Enter Mark Borde, owner of Osio Cinemas in Monterey. He had offered to run it after the major chains backed out in the wake of terrorist threats against any theater playing it. But then Sony halted the release altogether.

Today, this: the Cinemark chain passed on running it, and the call came in to Borde.

"The next call was to the indies. The booker called me and said, 'You want to play it?' and I said, 'Hell yes," Borde says. "This is an opportunity.  

The film will run at noon, 2:30pm, 4:55pm, 7:20pm and 9:50pm. 

The background is that hackers believed to be operating on orders of the North Korea government launched a massive cyber attack against Sony and released a treasure trove of documents. The release include emails from studio chiefs and producers bashing each other, attacking major stars and even turning President Barack Obama into the punchline of a racist email exchange.

The hacking came after Sony produced the Seth Rogen/James Franco film about a pair of bumbling tabloid TV journalists who land an interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, then are enlisted by the CIA to assassinate him.

But as damaging as the document release has been, the situation turned even darker when the group behind the hack threatened 9/11-style attacks on theaters planning to run the movie, slated to open Christmas Day. Major chains opted to pull the film in light of the threat of violence, leaving Sony with little choice but to pull the film altogether.

After Sony made its announcement pulling the film, Borde, who also runs the film promotion company Freestyle Releasing, told the Weekly he hated that decision.

"I understand no one wants to be held liable in case someone is hurt but giving in to this type of 'ransom' or cyber-terrorism is a slippery slope than can change the way we live our lives," Borde wrote in an email. "I would have said 'go to hell,' opened the movie and played the picture.