Brazilian author Paulo Coelho offers to pay Sony US$100,000 for rights to The Interview

Brazilian author Paulo Coelho has offered to pay Sony US$100,000 for rights to , protesting the company's decision to scrap the North Korean parody film amid threats from hackers.

Sony Pictures cancelled the December 25 release of the film with Seth Rogen and James Franco after major theatre chains in the United States and Canada said they would not screen the comedy in which two television journalists are recruited to assassinate the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who is played in the movie by Randall Park.

Skittishness about attending the movie followed threats by a hacking group calling itself GOP (Guardians of Peace), which invoked the September 11 attacks in a warning to people planning to see the film. Sony's decision sparked protest from free speech advocates and foreign policy hawks.

"I offer SonyPictures 100k for the rights of I will post it free on my blog. Pls get in touch with me via SonyPicturesBr," Coelho wrote on his Twitter account.

He later added: "Offer to SonyPictures stands till Fri 12:00 AM. You recover 0.01% of the budget, & I can say NO to terrorist threats."

The author of told Brazil newspaper the cancelled release "set a terrible precedent".