Sony CEO ordered Seth Rogen to tone down Kim Jong-un exploding head death scene

Hollywood funnyman Seth Rogen was ordered to tone down a movie showing the assassination of Kim Jong-un after it was denounced by Pyongyang, leaked emails reveal.

Sony Corp chief executive Kazuo Hirai personally demanded a key scene be changed in The Interview, in which journalists Rogen and James Franco are hired by the CIA to kill the North Korean leader.

According to emails spanning from August through to October, Hirai asked Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal to change a shot depicting Kim being struck by a tank shell, causing his head to explode.

The chief executive's interest in the film suggests the company's leadership was worried about Pyongyang's objections even before a devastating cyber attack on Sony's Hollywood studio network last month.

A Sony official said Hirai rarely reviewed specific scenes in films.

North Korea complained to the United Nations in July, accusing the US of sponsoring terrorism and committing an act of war by producing the movie.

In an exchange with writer and co-director Rogen, Pascal said she was in a difficult position because Hirai had asked her to make changes in the film.