This fall, James Franco and Seth Rogen will attempt to assassinate North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in their new comedy-bromance-spy thriller, “The Interview.”
The actors—who first worked together on cult TV hit Freaks & Geeks (R.I.P.), then co-starred in the apocalyptic comedy “This is the End” (where they were inspired to collaborate on a terrific spoof of Kanye West’s Bound 2 video)—play a talk show host and producer who manage to secure a coveted, improbable interview with the dictator, and are recruited by the CIA to kill him. Lizzie Caplan, who is brilliant in “Masters of Sex,” plays one of the CIA officers. The trailer was released yesterday, and we are cautiously optimistic that it will be a hilarious bromantic romp/satire of authoritarianism/parody of American celebrity culture.
Rogen told Indiewire in May: “It’s our attempt to make our version of a big political spy thriller. But starring me and Franco. It’s kind of the formula we always do which is we take a genre we like and add idiots to it. It’s like “This is the End” is a horror movie with idiots in it and “Pineapple Express” is an eighties action movie with idiots in it. So this is our “3 Days of the Condor” with idiots in it. And Kim Jong-un is one of the main characters in the movie, which is something that I’m curious about how people will react to.”
Also, the movie poster is amazing.
Without further ado, here’s the trailer: