It’s the movie that brought a film studio to a standstill — but ironically, Sony was already trying to appease North Korea with “The Interview.”
The screwball comedy, due out Christmas Day, depicts two hapless Americans, played by Seth Rogen and James Franco, assisting in a plot to kill Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.
Spoiler alert . . .
They succeed, in over-the-top, head-exploding fashion.
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Hackers working for North Korea are the prime suspects in breaching Sony’s computers in retaliation for the film. The cyber-devastation has shut down all production, as Sony’s network reportedly can’t process payments.
But the hack also reveals private e-mails that show Sony anticipated North Korea’s anger and was trying to soften the film because of it.
Tokyo-based CEO Kazuo Hirai ordered the company’s Hollywood studio to tone down the scene where Kim is blown up by a missile. The order infuriated Rogen, who also co-directed the film.
“This is now a story of Americans changing their movie to make North Koreans happy,” Rogen griped in an Aug. 15 e-mail. “That is a very damning story.”
But Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal insisted on the changes and pointed out to Rogen that she had supported the controversial film.
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” Pascal wrote. “If I was prepared to do that, we would have been done a long time ago . . . I would have done the easy thing and shut this down, but I haven’t, much to everyone’s incredible annoyance here.”
Pascal said it was the first time she had gotten a request from her bosses in Tokyo in 25 years working for them.
In the movie, Rogen plays a TV producer enlisted by the CIA in a plot to kill Kim. Aiding him is a talk-show host played by Franco. The Rogen and Franco characters complete their mission by firing a missile at Kim’s helicopter. For one last second, the film shows Kim’s face disintegrating in the fiery blast.
The original scene apparently was more over-the-top, with Kim’s face melting off.
In an e-mail Sept. 28, Pascal described the changes to Hirai. “[T]here is no face melting, less fire in the hair, fewer embers on the face, and the head explosion has been considerably obscured by the fire, as well as darkened to look less like flesh.”
But Hirai wanted even more changes from the film’s crew.
In October, Rogen delivered what he hoped was the scene’s final version.
“This is it!!! We removed the fire from the hair and the entire secondary wave of head chunks,” he said.
“Please tell us this is over now.”