Sony hack reveals battle over Steve Jobs biopic, "Interview" anxiety

The drama in Hollywood isn't on the big screen; it's playing out through embarrassing, hacked emails.

Sony Pictures is reeling from the most recent dump of fiery and sometimes offensive emails involving the studio head and some of the biggest stars. But the poor publicity could lead to box office gold, CBS News' Ben Tracy reports.

The most recent disclosures expose an ugly internal battle over "Jobs," a hotly anticipated biopic on Apple creator Steve Jobs.

Scott Rudin, the Oscar-winning producer, and Sony's co-chairwoman, Amy Pascal, viciously squabble in emails to each other over David Fincher, who was originally set to direct "Jobs" for Sony.

Angelina Jolie had wanted him to direct her project, "Cleopatra," instead of "Jobs" and appealed to Pascal.

Other email exchanges show the anxiety that Sony was feeling over the ending of the Seth Rogen-James Franco film "The Interview." The R-rated comedy portrays the actors as two American journalists who are recruited by the CIA to travel to North Korea and assassinate Kim Jong Un.

Pascal wrote to Rogen, who co-wrote and co-directed the film, on how to address the extreme violence against Kim at the end of the film.

According to the website Gawker, Pascal wrote, "You have the power to help me here ... all I can do is make sure that Sony won't be put in a bad situation."

Rogen reportedly responded by agreeing to tame down the ending of the film: "We will make it less gory. There are currently four burn marks on his face. We will take out three of them, leaving only one. We reduce the flaming hair by 50% ... do you think this will help? Is it enough?"

The FBI is currently investigating the hack and said that the attack was extraordinarily sophisticated and effective. Federal investigators say "Guardians of Peace," the group claiming responsibility, used hacking tools that would have bypassed 90 percent of security systems that most companies use.

"A studio in Hollywood being crippled by hackers, whoever was prepared to deal with this level of an attack?" said Joseph Kapsch, executive editor of The Wrap.

For now, the studio is staying silent.

Sony banned TV cameras from Thursday night's red carpet premiere of "The Interview" in Los Angeles and barred the movie's cast from answering reporters' questions. But, as they say in Hollywood, there is no such thing is bad publicity.

"It's absolutely going to drive more people to the box office," Kapsch said.