Evan Goldberg in the context of "The Interview"

On November 24, 2014, the hacker group "Guardians of Peace" leaked confidential data from the film studio Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). The data included employee emails, personal and family information, executive salaries, copies of then-unreleased films, future film plans, screenplays, and other information. The perpetrators then employed a variant of the Shamoon wiper malware to erase Sony's computer infrastructure.

During the hack, the group demanded that Sony withdraw its then-upcoming film The Interview, a political satire action comedy film produced and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The film stars Rogen and James Franco as journalists who set up an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un only to then be recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. The hacker group threatened terrorist attacks at cinemas screening the film, resulting in many major U.S. theater chains opting not to screen The Interview. In response to these threats, Sony chose to cancel the film's formal premiere and mainstream release, opting to skip directly to a downloadable digital release followed by a limited theatrical release the next day.

Seth Aaron Rogen (/ˈroʊɡən/; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Known primarily for his comedic leading man roles in films and on television, he has often collaborated with his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, and filmmaker and producer Judd Apatow. Rogen has received various accolades including four Primetime Emmy Awards and nominations for a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Rogen started his career acting in Freaks and Geeks (1999), before writing for the final season of Da Ali G Show (2004), earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. After his film debut in Donnie Darko (2001), he solidified himself as a comedy star with The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007) and Funny People (2009). He also acted in Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), The Green Hornet (2011), This Is the End (2013), The Interview (2014), Neighbors (2014), its 2016 sequel, The Disaster Artist (2017), and Long Shot (2019). He has played dramatic roles in 50/50 (2011), Take This Waltz (2011), Steve Jobs (2015) and The Fabelmans (2022).

The Green Hornet is a 2011 American superhero film directed by Michel Gondry from a screenplay by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rogen stars in the film as the Green Hornet, a character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker in 1936. Jay Chou also stars as his sidekick Kato, alongside Christoph Waltz, Cameron Diaz, Edward James Olmos, David Harbour, and Tom Wilkinson. In the film, a newspaper publisher's son, following his father's sudden death, teams up with a martial arts-skilled mechanic to become crime-fighting vigilantes, attracting the attention of a Russian mobster.

The Green Hornet was released to theaters in North America on January 14, 2011, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and grossed $227.8 million against a $120 million production budget.