LOS ANGELES — The trailer for “The Interview” makes the plot pretty clear within about 30 seconds: “This fall James Franco and Seth Rogen will attempt to assassinate Kim Jong Un.” ADVERTISING LOS ANGELES — The trailer for “The Interview”
LOS ANGELES — The trailer for “The Interview” makes the plot pretty clear within about 30 seconds: “This fall James Franco and Seth Rogen will attempt to assassinate Kim Jong Un.”
As in, Kim Jong Un, the president of North Korea.
The country’s government has not taken the film’s premise lightly, and on Wednesday it said the movie’s release would be an “act of war.”
“If the United States administration tacitly approves or supports the release of this film, we will take a decisive and merciless countermeasure,” a spokesman for its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, according to The New York Times.
The North Korean government had already denounced the film Monday through its unofficial spokesman, Kim Myong Chol, executive director of the Center for North Korea-U.S. Peace.
In the film Franco plays a talk show host headed to North Korea with his producer, Rogen, for an exclusive interview with the North Korean president when the CIA recruits them to kill their interview subject.
Rogen was taking the news in stride Wednesday morning. He tweeted: “People don’t usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they’ve paid 12 bucks for it. Hiyooooo!!!”