A few weeks ago, the internet dropped the first teaser trailer for The Interview, the upcoming comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen as journalists who score the interview of a lifetime with Kim Jong-Un, only to be enlisted by the CIA to carry out a plot to assassinate the North Korean dictator.
Well, we can confirm that the real North Korea has seen the trailer, and they are not happy about it.
North Korea's take on new US movie: "Act of war"
The release of The Interview would apparently equate an "act of war." According a spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry, if the U.S. government doesn't stop the movie's release, it will face "stern" and "merciless" retaliation. Turns out, North Korea does not have a good sense of humor about this kind of thing.
He didn't mention the movie by name but was clearly referring to "The Interview," which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as a producer and talk-show host who land an exclusive interview with the North Korean dictator and are then asked by the CIA to assassinate him.
The "reckless U.S. provocative insanity" of mobilizing a "gangster filmmaker" to challenge the North's leadership is triggering "a gust of hatred and rage" among North Korean people and soldiers, the spokesman said, in typically heated propaganda language.
The film's release would be considered an "act of war that we will never tolerate," he said.
I should mention that Randall Park plays Kim Jong-Un in the movie.
It's not clear what a North Korean "gust of hatred and rage" looks like, or what the regime would do in retaliation for The Interview, but it's fairly doubtful that Sony is going to back down from its October 10 release date.
If anything, an official reaction from North Korea's state media is more publicity for the movie -- just another inevitable talking point for the press junket. But I guess they won't be counting on the North Korea box office.
More here: North Korea Warns U.S. Over Film Mocking Its Leader