A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman calls Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's upcoming The Interview "an act of war". Really.
When Charlie Sheen dropped a bomb on Saddam Hussein in Hot Shots! back in the 1990s, we can't imagine that the-then leader of Iraq was particularly amused. However, we also can't quite remember Jim Abrahams' spoof movie being the catalyst for international conflict.
But times have changed. And Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the co-directors of the upcoming The Interview, seem to have left the North Korean government threatening an "act of war". We are not making this up. The world might end because of a Seth Rogen movie.
The Interview is a comedy, starring Rogen and James Franco, about a fake plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. And on the basis of the trailer, there are some within North Korea who are not amused. According to the KCNA news agency in North Korea, "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". Furthermore, "If the US administration allows and defends the showing of the film, a merciless counter-measure will be taken".
They're not going to deploy Sandler in response, surely?
The BBC further reports a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman calling the film's release an "act of war". And whilst the film The Interview itself wasn't specifically cited, to our knowledge, it's the only upcoming mainstream release about a plot to kill the leader of North Korea currently on the schedules. It's not like when Deep Impact and Armageddon were released around the same time.
Seth Rogen, anyway, took to Twitter to respond, carefully choosing his words to douse the flames of this potential international incident....
People don't usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they've paid 12 bucks for it. Hiyooooo!!!
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) June 25, 2014
We are bravely writing this news story from our underground bunker in Dudley, by the way.
We'd be surprised if this affected the release of The Interview in any way, although it should make Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's press tour a little more interesting. But we'll keep you posted.
And we all thought it was going to be a Michael Bay movie that finished us off...
BBC.
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