28 Jun – North Korea has threatened to wage war on the United States if it releases "The Interview", starring Seth Rogen and James Franco on a plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jung-Un. According to BBC News, a spokesperson from the Foreign Ministry of North Korea cried with outrage shortly after a trailer of the action comedy was released; calling it an act of war and will make a 'merciless retaliation', if Hollywood still decides to release the co-directed comedy by Rogen and Evan Goldberg on 10 October 2014. Although the spokesperson did not mention the title, it condemned the movie for inciting 'hatred and rage' in the people of North Korea as a 'reckless US provocation insanity'. "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," the spokesperson said.
In response to the threats issued, Seth Rogen commented on his Twitter: "People don't usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they've paid 12 bucks for it." In "The Interview", Rogen and Franco play as a talk show producer and host, who are heading towards North Korea to interview Kim Jung-Un in a bid to legitimise their reputation as journalists. Given their access to the leader, the duo are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. Written by the co-directors and Dan Sterling, Rogen explained that he was inspired to write this movie based on journalists' trip to North Korea. "People have the hypothetical discussion about how journalists have access to the world's most dangerous people, and they hypothetically would be in a good situation to assassinate them," he said. Rogen added that the movie was meant to target the late Kim Jung-Il but had to switch it to his successor, when the former died in 2011.