Screenplay of “Pixels” changed to avoid offending China, leaked e-mails show

Producers of the American science fiction comedy “Pixels,” which debuted this week in the United States and Europe, changed the film’s screenplay to avoid offending China and ensure access to that market, leaked internal emails appear to show.

Among the thousands of internal Sony Pictures Entertainment emails made public by WikiLeaks in recent months, one sent in 2013 by the company’s chief representative in China, Li Chow, recommended to senior Sony Pictures executives that the “Pixels” script not include a scene in which Earthattacking aliens blast a hole in the Great Wall.

WikiLeaks uploaded the confidential documents to an online archive after Sony Pictures emails were hacked ahead of the release of the 2014 political satire comedy film “The Interview,” which depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jongun.

The scene “will not benefit the China release at all. I would then, recommend not to do it,” Li wrote.

The advice was apparently heeded because in the film aliens (who take the form of 1980s videogame characters) attack a district of Manhattan and the Taj Mahal, but not the Chinese landmark.

A scene in which top U.S. government officials mention China as a possible culprit in the attacks was also altered to remove any reference to the Asian nation, the world’s secondlargest film market.

In addition, a reference in the movie to suspected Chinese computer hackers was taken out.

In another 2013 email, Li also advised against a plan to relocate a carchase scene from Tokyo to Shanghai, saying it would “involve destruction all over the city and may likely cause some sensitivity.”

Sony Pictures has declined to comment on the leaked internal emails.

The film, directed by Chris Columbus, will debut in China on Sept. 15.