Plenty of targets

Interview co-directors take aim at more than Kim Jong Un

Some tyrants can’t take a joke. Certainly, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not amused by his skewering in The Interview, a comedy by Vancouver’s Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

As the world knows, the movie’s Dec. 25 release was delayed after a massive computer hacking at Sony, the studio that backed The Interview, followed by 9/11-type threats aimed at theatres set to play it.

The film is now scheduled to arrive in select Canadian theatres Jan. 2. What fans will see is a mix of R-rated farce and foolishness and lots of comedy stuff skewering the North Korean leader, played by actor Randall Park.

In the movie, James Franco plays a TV host who is handed an interview with Kim after his producer (Rogen) arranges it. The CIA convinces the duo to assassinate the despot.

Before the threats to theatres and the delayed release of The Interview, Goldberg, 32, offered four things he wanted moviegoers to know about The Interview.

1. The plot is meant to be a set up for jokes, not a political statement aimed at belittling Kim and North Korea.

“Seth used to constantly talk about how reporters have this access to so many interesting people,” said Goldberg. “At the same time, we were thinking about doing something that connects to the real world. Eventually, we just combined the ideas.”

2. Park’s effective portrayal of Kim allowed the directors to expand the role.

“(Director) Nick Stoller told us we should hire (Park) when we were doing Neighbors,” said Goldberg referring to last spring’s hit. “He’s a standup comedian, but his acting chops are so impressive that we realized he’s much more than a comedian.”

3. Rogen and Goldberg consider themselves equalopportunity offenders in The Interview.

Kim is just one of many high-profile entities targeted by the pair. The CIA gets a lambasting. So does the 21st-century obsession with being famous, and Franco’s TV twit is “a mishmash of all kinds of ridiculous on-air people.” Even Eminem appears playing a curious version of himself who comes out of the closet during a TV chat. “He thought it was funny and he got the joke, and he liked the way it was presented,” Goldberg said of the rapper.

4. And, yes, the co-directors censor themselves, occasionally.

“We always have to go too far at some point,” said Goldberg. “And then during editing, we have to be very mature and thoughtful, and hopefully not offend too many people.”