LOS ANGELES — Sony is hellbent on releasing The Interview as soon as it's able, but reports that the battered studio is debuting the movie on its free online streaming service Crackle are false, Mashable has learned.

Sony considers The Interview to be merely delayed, David Boies, a lawyer for the studio, told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd on Saturday afternoon.

"It will be distributed. How it's going to be distributed, I don't think anybody knows quite yet. But it's going to be distributed," he said.

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Earlier on Saturday, the New York Post reported that The Interview would be offered on Crackle, but a person with direct knowledge of the studio's thinking told Mashable that report was premature, adding that many factors and options are being weighed at the moment. Sony maintains it pulled the film from its Christmas Day slot only after the major movie theaters decided en masse not to show it. Boies said the company is "fighting" to release the film some way, while also keeping the safety of the public a top priority.

He also responded to President Obama's recent remarks that Sony had "made a mistake" by pulling the film.

"I think it was helpful to have the President recognize publicly that this was an unacceptable attack, that we cannot have state-sponsored attacks that are designed to censor what we do here in this country," he said.