North Korea Takes Seth Rogen Complaint To The UN

[Karloff]

North Korea Takes Seth Rogen Complaint To The UN


It's an act of war, I tells ya! AN ACT OF WAR!

Last month an unidentified North Korean spokesman threatened swift and merciless retaliation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/135671-North-Korea-Threatens-War-With-US-Over-Seth-Rogen-Comedy] against the US if Seth Rogen's latest, The Interview, ever gets to the big screen, but now it's official: North Korea has taken its sorrows to the United Nations, in a written complaint. It's an act of war, says North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam; the movie ought never to be shown.

"To allow the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a sovereign state should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war," says Ja [http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/09/uk-northkorea-un-film-idUKKBN0FE21B20140709]. "The United States authorities should take immediate and appropriate actions to ban the production and distribution of the aforementioned film; otherwise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsoring terrorism."

In The Interview [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/135333-James-Franco-and-Seth-Rogen-Will-Take-Down-Kim-Jong-un-in-The-Interview], for those of you who haven't been following North Korea's hissy fit, Rogen and James Franco play two journalists who land a career-making gig, to interview the North Korean dictator. Soon afterward they're recruited by the CIA in a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-Un. Hijinks ensue.

While films have been banned in the United States before [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_banned_in_the_United_States], more often than not nudity or sexual content is the trigger. Perhaps that shot of Kim Jong-Un's rippling back fat will tip the scales.

Or perhaps not. Seth Rogen isn't too concerned about these developments; after all, he Tweeted [https://twitter.com/Sethrogen/status/481811214737997825] back in June, "People don't usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they've paid 12 bucks for it."

Source: Guardian [http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/10/north-korea-un-the-interview-seth-rogen-james-franco]


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[fluxy100]

Wait what? North Korea has a UN Representative? I thought they had their own legion of doom that consisted of them and their stuffed animals.

 

[WendelI]

Wait what? North Korea has a UN Representative? I thought they had their own legion of doom that consisted of them and their stuffed animals.

Dude they are "action figures" thank you very much.

 

[tehroc]

Cmon now, you defy the UN all the time.

 

[karma9308]

NK: MOOOOOOM! Timmy said he was going to make a movie where I'm the bad guy.
UN: That's nice dear.
Hollywood: (sticks tongue out blows raspberry)
NK: MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!
UN: (sigh)

 

[frobalt]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

Edit:

One thing to realise here is that it isn't a generic 'assassinate the leader of a foreign' nation film where either the leader is purely a made up character or both the country and leader are made up, it's a film where a real leader will be represented. Usually leaders of countries are made up characters, even when nothing really happens to them.


Regardless, I am curious to see what NK do when this is released, and I certainly don't like what the people of that country are treated like. I just think it's understandable that NK would be a bit pissy about this film.

 

[josh4president]

Do you think someone should pull the North Korean ambassador aside and let him know all his country is doing is giving the film an amazing amount of free publicity?

 

[FalloutJack]

Dude they are "action figures" thank you very much.

Meanwhile, in North Korea...


I'm sorry, but this is laughable. Next, they're going to order that every copy of M*A*S*H be destroyed too, especially any reference to Five O'Clock Charlie.

 

[Lieju]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

I'm sure there would be people in the US who'd go crazy, but would it be banned?

If it depicted an actual death of an actual existing person maybe, but you could have a movie, even a comedy where the attempt to kill Obama was the plot.
The question is then whether it's endorsed, or if it can be considered a threat.
I highly doubt that will be the case with this movie, I'd guess they actually won't kill Kim Jong-Un.
From the synopsis, it seems the protagonists aren't on board with the plot.

It's very possible the CIA will look like the bad guys, at least to the same extent as the Kim.

But without seeing the movie...

 

[J Tyran]

Really? This coming from the country that makes and distributes videos like this:-

 

[Demagogue]

I love this double standard people are taking with this. As others have said in past threads, if someone was to make a movie like this about the USA, there would be an uproar, but because it is occuring to NK its 'fine'.

I'm not going to watch the movie regardless because I think Seth Rogan's brand of humor is idiotic. However, it is a movie that should have never been made.

 

[frobalt]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

I'm sure there would be people in the US who'd go crazy, but would it be banned?

If it depicted an actual death of an actual existing person maybe, but you could have a movie, even a comedy where the attempt to kill Obama was the plot.
The question is then whether it's endorsed, or if it can be considered a threat.
I highly doubt that will be the case with this movie, I'd guess they actually won't kill Kim Jong-Un.
From the synopsis, it seems the protagonists aren't on board with the plot.

It's very possible the CIA will look like the bad guys, at least to the same extent as the Kim.

But without seeing the movie...

That's true, we don't know from the film how it will play out, but given the sort of film it's likely to be, it's going to have some sort of happy ending, or the main characters will succeed somehow - I'd be extremely surprised if it ended in their failure and execution anyway.

 

[maxben]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

Edit:

One thing to realise here is that it isn't a generic 'assassinate the leader of a foreign' nation film where either the leader is purely a made up character or both the country and leader are made up, it's a film where a real leader will be represented. Usually leaders of countries are made up characters, even when nothing really happens to them.


Regardless, I am curious to see what NK do when this is released, and I certainly don't like what the people of that country are treated like. I just think it's understandable that NK would be a bit pissy about this film.

There was a movie about assassinating GWB and it wasn't banned http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-405644/George-Bush-assassination-film-wins-award.html

Though, to be fair it wasn't a crappy comedy and more about what would happen.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Swift and merciless retaliation? lol. Yeah, whats NK going to do.......nothing thats what. They should just be glad the USA hasnt bombed them to pieces by now. Im sure the US would love it if they did attempt any kind of military action against them because they would have just cause to retaliate.

 

[Smiley Face]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

Edit:

One thing to realise here is that it isn't a generic 'assassinate the leader of a foreign' nation film where either the leader is purely a made up character or both the country and leader are made up, it's a film where a real leader will be represented. Usually leaders of countries are made up characters, even when nothing really happens to them.


Regardless, I am curious to see what NK do when this is released, and I certainly don't like what the people of that country are treated like. I just think it's understandable that NK would be a bit pissy about this film.

Be pissy about the film, sure, that's fair, but I doubt the US would go this far. They'd cry foul, some of the states would probably ban it, but recognizing that it was a comedy, privately produced, they would recognize the free speech and censorship issues involved. They certainly wouldn't call it an act of war, or terrorism (well, except Fox News, perhaps).

Also, there's the question of hypocrisy here. The stuff that the North Korean State produces and feeds their own people is more incendiary than this, and no one's claiming that's an act of war.

This is amusing, but it's also escalating more than I thought it would. I do hope they don't do anything crazier.

 

[Adamantium93]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

Edit:

One thing to realise here is that it isn't a generic 'assassinate the leader of a foreign' nation film where either the leader is purely a made up character or both the country and leader are made up, it's a film where a real leader will be represented. Usually leaders of countries are made up characters, even when nothing really happens to them.


Regardless, I am curious to see what NK do when this is released, and I certainly don't like what the people of that country are treated like. I just think it's understandable that NK would be a bit pissy about this film.

Except that this isn't anything new. Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were both prime targets for fantasy assassinations in American pop culture over the past decade. Going back even further, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were the subject of similarly themed stories before we were even involved in WW2.

And you can bet your bootstraps that people who didn't like King George back around the time of the American Revolution made stories and plays about his death.

Yeah, they can be pissy about it, but that's about all they can do. There is no law prohibiting the movie from being made (well, he could probably sue for slander or unauthorized use of his likeness, but he's not likely to avail himself of the US courts).

 

[Lieju]

As bat shit crazy as NK are, I've gotta agree with them on this one.

I mean, could you imagine the backlash there'd be if a country released a film about assassinating the president of the USA? The Americans would go crazy. It would definitely be banned in the USA at least.

I'm sure there would be people in the US who'd go crazy, but would it be banned?

If it depicted an actual death of an actual existing person maybe, but you could have a movie, even a comedy where the attempt to kill Obama was the plot.
The question is then whether it's endorsed, or if it can be considered a threat.
I highly doubt that will be the case with this movie, I'd guess they actually won't kill Kim Jong-Un.
From the synopsis, it seems the protagonists aren't on board with the plot.

It's very possible the CIA will look like the bad guys, at least to the same extent as the Kim.

But without seeing the movie...

That's true, we don't know from the film how it will play out, but given the sort of film it's likely to be, it's going to have some sort of happy ending, or the main characters will succeed somehow - I'd be extremely surprised if it ended in their failure and execution anyway.

Yes, but would killing Kim be a success from the point of view of the narrative?

This seems like the kind of movie where the protagonists are trapped between two opposing sides and just try to not die.
I'd see them befriending Kim and getting the assasination called off more of a likely thing from a story-telling perspective.
Or them deciding not to kill him but accidentally doing it anyway.

I'm kinda more worried how they will depict North Korea, actually. What goes on in that country is not fun, and depicting the leader as a wacky loon ignores the shit the normal people go through.

 

[gigastar]

Now theres 2 questions which i think bear worth asking.

One, The Interview is hardly the first movie to portray NK as the antagonistic state, so why are they up in arms over this one and not the dozen or so that came before it?

Two, theyre calling out the US gov directly over this. Do they even understand how the US is run? (Porbably not, since they went and issued a threat to a country with far more resources, allies, manpower and better military tech with war.)

 

[Shanahanapp]

While North Korea are COMPLETELY FUCKING NUTS and "act of war" is kinda an exaggeration, I get where they're coming from here. You can't really have a movie about assassinating the leader of a country you're technically at peace with. Pretty sure people would go crazy if North Korea released a film about assassinating Obama.