While we may not see the release of THE INTERVIEW in the near future (if ever), it was always dangerous to feature a film focused on the assassination of a real world leader, especially one as contentious as Kim Jong-Un. Still, it is a satire and a comedy, so no one should really take it seriously, right?
But, there was a point where THE INTERVIEW may never had caused any sort of issue for North Korea because at one stage in the script’s development, Kim Jong-Un wasn’t even a character in it. Screenwriter Dan Sterling explained the change to Creative Screenwriting.
“Sacha (Baron Cohen) was getting ready with THE DICTATOR, so he sort of cornered the market on Middle Eastern tyranny jokes around that time,” Sterling muses. “I went and wrote the script with a fake name and fake country, but after discussing the project with Seth [Rogen], Evan [Goldberg] and the executives at Sony, we decided I ought to try writing it with Kim Jong-un. Once it was in there, we knew it was the way to go.”
THE DICTATOR was itself based on a novel by Saddam Hussein, so it never quite had to worry about the same issues faced by THE INTERVIEW, but I understand why the change was made. But, we have also seen films like the remake of RED DAWN change the flags from Chinese to North Korean to try and keep positive relations with our Asian trade partner and not a word was made of that. But, Sony executives approved the change so this should have been somewhat expected.
THE INTERVIEW opens in theaters….oh, yeah. Damn.