UPDATE: The NYC premiere of The Interview has now been cancelled in light of the threats.

It just gets worse for Sony and for James Franco and Seth Rogen's controversial film The Interview. A day after leaked emails released by hackers revealed Sony execs freaking out about how "desperately unfunny" the movie is, now a group claiming to be the hackers are threatening to attack anywhere that shows it.

The film's existence and mooted release has proved difficult given that the plot centres around Franco and Rogen attempting to assassinate North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un. Government officials from the Hermit Kingdom are the sensitive type and didn't take too kindly to the storyline, labelling the film itself as an "act of war".

The hackers that have plagued Sony over the past three weeks go by the name of Guardians Of Peace (GOP). Some speculate that this group is in fact North Korea's tech team, although the FBI think it's unlikely and for what it's worth, so do we.

Today, GOP has released its most serious threat yet – a warning that it'll carry out a 9/11 style attack on cinemas that show The Interview. Full transcript of the warning below, via Variety:

Warning

We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.
Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.
The world will be full of fear.
Remember the 11th of September 2001.
We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time.
(If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)
Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
All the world will denounce the SONY.

Idle or not, the threat is bound to keep paranoid people away from cinemas and harm the film's showing at the box office. It's not good news considering Sony were privately worried that it was crap anyway.