North Korea Files U.N. Complaint About Upcoming Comedy ‘The Interview’
A North Korean U.N. Ambassador was so disturbed by early impressions of the upcoming film comedy The Interview, he filed a complaint with the United Nations, reports The Hollywood Reporter (via Reuters). The film, out October 10th, co-stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as a pair of celebrity journalists coerced by the CIA into an assassination plot against North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un – but instead of laughing off the satirical plot, the ambassador called its implications an “act of war.”
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“To allow the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a sovereign state should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war,” Ja Song Nam wrote in a letter dated June 27th (but made public this week) and addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “The United States authorities should take immediate and appropriate actions to ban the production and distribution of the aforementioned film; otherwise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsoring terrorism.”
As The Diplomat reports, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement about the film last month, calling its distribution “absolutely intolerable.” This prompted Rogen to respond with a tongue-in-cheek tweet: “People don’t usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they’ve paid 12 bucks for it. Hiyooooo!!!”
Comedy BFFs Franco and Rogen are no strangers to satirizing outspoken public figures. Late last year, the duo created a hilarious shot-by-shot parody of Kanye West’s infamous “Bound 2” video; but instead of going off South Park “fish stick” style with a mid-song diss, the amused rapper invited the actors to recreate their viral classic at his wedding to Kim Kardashian. They eventually declined the invitation.