Warning: this story contains plot spoilers
Actor Seth Rogen objected to re-editing his new film The Interview, about an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-un, just “to make North Koreans happy”.
Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal wrote to Rogen to ask him to tone down a scene in which the North Korean leader is blown up.
Pascal said the request came from Kazuo Hirai, chairman of Sony Corporation.
The exchange was revealed in leaked emails in the wake of a massive cyber attack on Sony Pictures.
But Rogen – who wrote and directed The Interview – refused to meet all of the demands made by Mr Hirai.
“This is now a story of Americans changing their movie to make North Koreans happy,” he wrote, in an email dated 15 August. “That is a very damning story.”
The Interview – due to be released on Christmas Day in the US – sees Rogen and James Franco play two reporters who are granted an audience with Kim Jong-un. The CIA then enlists the pair to assassinate him.
‘Flunky’
In June this year, North Korea described the film as an act of war and an “undisguised sponsoring of terrorism”, and called on the US and the UN to block it.
Ms Pascal wrote to Rogen relaying concerns raised by Mr Hirai about a key shot in the film which depicts Kim Jong-un struck by a tank shell, causing his head to explode.
“As embarrassing as this has been from my point of view,” wrote Ms Pascal to the film-maker, “you have to appreciate the fact that we haven’t just dictated to you what it had to be.”
“This isn’t some flunky. It’s the chairman of the …read more
Source:: BBC Entertainment
