From The Hip | The assassination of Kim Jong-un is now the subject of an upcoming American comedy
'The Interview' promises a humorous take on US and North Korea relations, but will it be be successful satire or simply in bad taste?
You might not have heard of The Interview, but all you really need to know about the upcoming American comedy is that it’s about two journalists travelling to North Korea on a mission to assassinate Kim Jong-un.
Starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, The Interview debuts October 10 in the United States, and portrays the two stars as buffoonish talk show hosts who get the chance to travel to Pyongyang and speak with the Hermit Kingdom’s Supreme Ruler himself, played with gusto by Korean American actor Randall Park.
In reality, Rogen and Franco have been enlisted by the US government as undercover agents who must assassinate Kim and presumably liberate North Korea.
According to Rogen, who co-directed the project and is well known for his comedic roles in 2008’s Pineapple Express and 2013’s This is the End, the concept arose from pondering over the simple question of who could feasibly kill Kim Jong-un.
“We read as much as we could that was available on the subject… We talked to the guys from Vice who actually went to North Korea and met Kim Jong-un. We talked to people in the government whose job it is to associate with North Korea, or be experts on it."