Hollywood reels from The Interview’s cancellation

1. How do you solve a problem like North Korea?

James Franco and Seth Rogen. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

• Sony's decision to cancel the Christmas release of the North Korea-mocking The Interview is expected to lose it about $20 million.

  [Vox / Kelsey McKinney]

• Other estimates go as high as $100 million.

  [FiveThirtyEight / Nate Silver]

• The US government reportedly believes North Korea was behind the hacks against Sony that set these events into motion, but other have their doubts.

  [Wired / Kim Zetter]

• North Korea reportedly employs thousands of specially trained hackers for cyberwarfare.

  [Vox / Max Fisher]

• A Steve Carell-starring film set in North Korea has already been cancelled before shooting even began.

  [Slate / Elliot Hannon]

• Some theaters wanted to replace The Interview with Team America: World Police (which also mocks North Korea), but Team America's studio put the kibosh on that.

  [Vox / Kelsey McKinney]

• The scene of The Interview where North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un is assassinated has leaked, and doesn't look that great.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• Adrian Hong: "North Korea is not funny. It is hard to imagine a comparable comedy emerging about quirky Islamic State slavers."

  [The Atlantic / Adrian Hong]

• Adam Sternbergh: "this is most certainly the death knell for the kinds of comedies in which real-life foreign dictators come to a fiery end and/or turn out to be alien cockroaches."

  [NY Mag / Adam Sternvergh]

• The film's screenwriter, Dan Sterling, on canceling the movie after terrorist threats: "Comedians shouldn’t be held accountable for acts of violence."

  [Creative Screenwriting / Melissa Maroff]

• The movie's getting compared to the Nazi-mocking Charlie Chaplin classic The Great Dictator. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

  [Washington Post / Adam Taylor]

• The case for a US government bailout of The Interview.

  [NY Mag / Jonathan Chait]

• Mitt Romney's take, in case you wanted it: "@SonyPictures don’t cave, fight: release @TheInterview free online globally. Ask viewers for voluntary $5 contribution to fight #Ebola."

  [Mitt Romney]

• Ross Douthat: this incident will make movie studios less inclined to take risks, and they play things way too safe as it is.

  [NYT / Ross Douthat]

2. Nebraska and Oklahoma narc on Colorado

A budtender pours marijuana from a jar at a medical marijuana dispensary in California. (David McNew / Getty Images News)

• Nebraska and Oklahoma are suing Colorado for legalizing marijuana.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• The basic argument: the federal marijuana ban should trump Colorado's, and Colorado is harming neighboring states by increasing stoned driving and cross-border trafficking.

• Colorado's Attorney General: "We believe this suit is without merit and we will vigorously defend against it in the US Supreme Court."

  [Denver Post and The Cannabist / John Ingold]

• Marijuana Policy Project lobbyist Dan Riffle: Nebraska and Oklahoma don't have standing to sue, meaning the case should be dismissed out of hand.

  [Dan Riffle]

• While the Justice Department has let Colorado and Washington legalize marijuana, it's reserved the right to step in on stuff like stoned driving and inter-state trafficking, which Nebraska and Oklahoma are complaining about.

  [Huffington Post / Ryan Grim and Ryan Reilly]

• Sheriffs in Nebraska have been complaining about an increase in marijuana trafficking from Colorado for months.

  [LA Times / Jenny Deam]

3. Misc.

• Serial's big surprise: a satisfying ending.

  [Vox / Libby Nelson]

• 24 hour day care centers are now a thing.

  [Pacific Standard / Alissa Quart]

• Traditional pensions were created as a way to drain support for unions, and now unions are among the only groups defending them.

  [Bloomberg View / Stephen Mihm]

• 19 Reasons Santa Is Actually In Favour Of Full Communism Now.

  [BuzzFeed / Tom Phillips and Hannah Jewell]

• Without its investment in Alibaba, Yahoo! is, by some estimates, worth less than $0.

  [NYT / Nicholas Carlson]

• More Ayn Rand parodies should heavily reference her intense love for cats.

  [New Yorker / Mallory Ortberg]

4. Verbatim

• "I didn’t become a journalist to peddle indignation on Facebook."

  [Slate / Jordan Weissmann]

• "When people are competing to see who can come up with the wittiest and most hilarious quip about why we should disbelieve rape victims, something has gone horribly wrong."

  [Slate Star Codex / Scott Alexander]

• "The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry."

  [Richard McNally via Pacific Standard / Ed Cara]

• "The ability of machines to generate human speech predates even electricity."

  [The Atlantic / Cari Romm]

• "Julie Beck contributed thought leadership to this article."

  [The Atlantic / Robinson Meyer]