Pascal stepped down as the studio giant's top executive and is now embarking on a new production venture at the company after emails, taking aim at Angelina Jolie and U.S. leader President Barack Obama, were leaked during the Sony hack attack, sparked by the planned release of Franco and Seth Rogen's The Interview, about two American journalists hired by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Franco has now opened up about Pascal's exit, stating he doesn't think she deserved to be fired from the top job and admitting he enjoyed working with her on eight films.

He tells U.S. talk show host David Letterman, "We never felt like we were irresponsible or doing something wrong; we made a comedy, and we weren't going out on a limb saying, 'There's some messed up things going on over there (in North Korea)'. I think pretty much the rest of the world agrees... It's not right over there.

"The way Seth put it is it would be irresponsible not to say something... so I think, as time goes, maybe we'll be better prepared as a country or just as a world to deal with these kinds of things (threats over movies), but it was the first time. In the end, it came out (and) nothing happened."

He continues, "I certainly feel bad, you know. Amy Pascal, the head of Sony, stepped down, I guess because of the emails that were linked (to the hacking), and it's a real shame.

"I did eight movies with Sony with her and she's a great executive and a great female executive, that was a real shame."

Hackers calling themselves the Guardians of Peace claimed responsibility for the Sony leaks that ultimately cost Pascal her top post and threatened to continue uploading private emails unless film bosses agreed to pull The Interview from its Christmas Day (25Dec14) release.

Sony briefly succumbed to the demands, but later launched The Interview on limited release and via streaming services.

The movie was a digital hit, but Franco is disappointed it wasn't given a wider release in U.S. theatres because he is convinced it would have banked over $100 million (£62.5 million) if leading chains had shown it.

He adds, "It did well, I think it broke all the records for an online release, but it was tracking so well, if it had gone up in theatres it would have just been enormous... It wasn't a loss. We made money but it would have been (huge)."