If you thought that filmmakers would shy away from making films about North Korea and its dictator leaders after Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s “The Interview” instigated a devastating hack on Sony Pictures from the nation, you… thought mostly right. Hollywood scrambled to cancel a number of North Korea-themed projects, with a Gore Verbinski/Steve Carell spy-thriller being the major casualty.
But the dust has settled, and Rob Cannan and Ross Adam are the brave souls stepping up with their very good documentary “The Lovers & The Despot,” which just debuted its first trailer. The film tells the remarkable true story of how one of South Korea’s most famous directors, Shin Sang-ok, and his actress ex-wife Choi Eun-hee, were kidnapped by Kim Jong-Il’s government and were forced to make propaganda films for the nation.
The film was a big hit at Sundance this year, and while we wondered if the movie quite lived up to the story, we did enjoy it enormously too (read our review here). Magnolia are releasing the film in theaters and on VOD on September 23rd — you can get your first glimpse of it above in anticipation.
