The Interview, an action-comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Eun, will be released in 63 countries around the world, according to
a report by Washington, D.C.-based Voice of America [VOA] on November 28th.
Sony Pictures, the production company
behind the film, stated, “The Interview will open in the
U.S. and Canada on December 25th, at at the beginning of next year, the film
will start screening in the UK, France, and other countries, totaling 63 in all.”
Of the remaining 59 countries where the
film is slated to screen, 31 are located in Europe, 15 in the Middle East and
Africa, and 13 in South America; South Korea is not yet among the list of nations where the film will be available for viewing.
The controversial comedy, in which the lead characters are recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim
after landing a rare interview, has garnered strong backlash from North Korea.
In both June and July, North Korea
sent protest letters regarding the movie to the U.N., including a statement from
the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting that a formal
memorandum be sent to the U.N. General Assembly and U.N. Security Council.
Uriminzokkiri, the propaganda arm of North Korea’s
Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, issued a statement condemning the film. “Those involved in this
film are going directly against what is right and just, and have been bought off by plotters with a few dollars to plan and direct this film. We will punish anyone affiliated with this movie for the human scum that they are,” the report read.
It went on to describe the film as a “complete distortion of reality” and
considered it an “act of provocation full of intolerable insults to our righteous people.”
