North Korea’s government isn’t known for having a sense of humor, so we aren’t surprised that it doesn’t think there’s anything funny about a new James Franco-Seth Rogen comedy that revolves around an attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Associated Press, via U.S. News and World Report, informs us that North Korea has now threatened to go to war with the United States unless our government blocks the film from being released.
Specifically, an unnamed North Korean official issued a statement on a government website saying that letting Franco and Rogen’s The Interview release in theaters would be “act of war that we will never tolerate” and would create “a gust of hatred and rage” among North Korea’s people and its army. The official also said that it would be “reckless U.S. provocative insanity” to allow this “gangster filmmaker” to continue his plans to produce the film.
This isn’t the first time the head of the North Korean government has been ridiculed by an American film, as Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, was ruthlessly satirized in Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police. The regime at the time never threatened war with the United States over the film, however, which suggests that the elder Kim was much more laid back about being negatively portrayed on the silver screen than his son is.
