When the teaser trailer of the movie "The Interview" was released, there was only one question everyone had in their mind – How would Kim Jong-un react?
Now here we are - his regime has not only expressed utter disgrace and fury over the notorious plot portrayed in the movie to assassinate the supreme leader of North Korea, the reclusive communist nation has also threatened a war against the United States.
Promising a merciless retaliation for the forthcoming comedy thriller, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman was quoted by state media as saying the idea that film carries in itself is an "act of war."
Hollywood actors James Franco and Seth Rogen have been hitting the headlines ever since the trailer of the movie was released earlier in June and as the movie makers would have expected, the teaser was received with much enthusiasm and amusement.
Rogen, who is one of the directors of the film, was quick to react in Twitter over North Korea's warning – and he didn't seem to have taken the threat with more than a pinch of salt, quite expectedly:
People don't usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they've paid 12 bucks for it. Hiyooooo!!!
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) June 25, 2014
The recently released trailer of the movie, due to release in October, shows the two actors playing as journalists for a popular celebrity tabloid TV show. When they discover that the North Korean dictator is a fan of the show, they land an interview with him. But before they reach Pyangyong, they are recruited by the CIA.
If the scenario had taken place in real life, who else would better do the job of killing the infamous dictator than them?
But the real life scenario is quite different. Far from being able to assassinate the controversial North Korean leader, the US has only been heeding to the raging rhetoric of war from the mysterious nation.
"Making and releasing a movie on a plot to hurt our top-level leadership is the most blatant act of terrorism and war and will absolutely not be tolerated," the state's propaganda KCNA news agency quoted a spokesman as saying.
"If the US administration allows and defends the showing of the film, a merciless countermeasure will be taken," the unnamed man said adding that the "reckless US provocative insanity" of allowing a "gangster filmmaker" to challenge the dignity of North's leadership was triggering "a gust of hatred and rage" among the people and soldiers of the country.
