We’re in a weird moment with mainstream movies and presidential assassinations. "X-Men: Days Of Future Past" offered up its own scenario of the killing of President John F. Kennedy, and this fall, James Franco and Seth Rogen will try and eliminate Kim Jong-Un in the comedy "The Interview." Hilarious, right? Well, not unless you’re the North Korean leader or part of his circle.
With the trailer now online, though probably not viewable by most people who actually live in North Korea, officials have come out hard against the movie. Speaking with The Telegraph, Kim Myong-chol, executive director of The Centre for North Korea-US Peace, didn’t mince words about this thoughts on the film. "There is a special irony in this storyline as it shows the desperation of the US government and American society," he said. "A film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the US has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine," he added. "And let us not forget who killed [President John F.] Kennedy – Americans."
And then he lobbed in a conspiracy theory, just because: "In fact, President [Barack] Obama should be careful in case the US military wants to kill him as well." But Myong-chol isn’t a total killjoy — he does dig other kinds of movies. "James Bond is a good character and those films are much more enjoyable," he said.
Meanwhile, unnamed officials at the North Korean Foreign Ministry issued their own statement via the country’s new service. And it’s a bit more harsh, as they think "The Interview" is an incitement for something more saying (via CNN) that it’s, "the most undisguised terrorism and a war action to deprive the service personnel and people of the DPRK of their mental mainstay and bring down its social system."
That’s a bit intense, but Rogen isn’t sweating it, as he recently hit Twitter with his reaction to it all which you can see below. "The Interview" opens on October 10th.
Apparently Kim Jong Un plans on watching #TheInterview. I hope he likes it!! http://t.co/5VrsgYlydE
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) June 20, 2014
