The Interview 2014
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's comedy, with Rogen and James Franco as journalists the CIA recruits to kill Kim Jong-un (Randall Park), whose head is blown off in a slow-motion explosion at the climax. Screenwriter Dan Sterling started from a Rogen-Goldberg 'what if you interviewed Osama bin Laden and had to kill him' provocation, then moved the target to North Korea over drinks with a friend. His first draft used a fictional leader named Kim Il-Hwan; the real name came later, at the studio's suggestion. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai pushed to soften the death scene, kicking off months of emails between Amy Pascal and Rogen ('maybe it's more charred than pink') that ended with the kill scored to an acoustic version of Katy Perry's 'Firework.' After a threat invoking 9/11, the four biggest chains pulled it; Sony released it Christmas Day 2014 in more than 300 indie theaters and same-day on Google, the first big studio film to open in theaters and streaming at once. It made about $12 million worldwide, and no violence followed.
