14 DAY TRIAL // Obviously, the last thing that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has is a healthy sense of humor so, if James Franco and Seth Rogen were counting on it when they came up with the idea for their latest comedy, “The Interview,” they bet on a losing horse.
In the film, which got a first trailer and poster earlier this month, the two play television personalities who somehow manage to score an interview with Jong-un and who, before they set off for North Korea, are intercepted by the CIA and tasked with the mission to assassinate him.
The humor of the situation derives from the obvious fact that these two are the last thing to hit killers: they’re two media people very much caught up in their own world and somewhat stupid too on the side.
Still, Kim Jong-un is not amused: a government official has already said this much in the statement released at the end of last week, which condemned the movie for joking about assassinating a political figure, especially one as important as Jong-un.
According to a new statement, the leader might have something more in mind than just verbally standing up to the US government for allowing such a film to come out. Democracy be damned, the government should bin it immediately – or face the consequences.
“Making and releasing a movie on a plot to hurt our top-level leadership is the most blatant act of terrorism and war and will absolutely not be tolerated,” an unnamed spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs says in a statement cited by E! News.
This gets even worse in the next sentence, because the official goes on to explain what we’re to understand by that somewhat vague phrase “[this] will not be tolerated.” “If the US administration allows and defends the showing of the film, a merciless counter-measure will be taken,” the spokesman adds.
So far, it doesn’t seem like the US government is paying any attention to these threats. Hollywood too seems equally unimpressed, in the sense that it doesn’t look like the movie studio or any of the distributors will change any plan concerning the release of the film.
Seth Rogen did go on the record with a statement right after the first statement came out, but it might not be what you’d expect: “Apparently Kim Jong Un plans on watching #TheInterview. I hope he likes it!!” he wrote on Twitter.
Basically, he ignored all the condemning and paid attention only to that part of the statement that said Jong-un would still watch the movie. We’re guessing he’s curious to find out if the two leads carry out their mission successfully.
Here is the first official trailer. Unless the controversy halts the release or affects it in some other way, expect to see it in theaters this October.
