More bizarre than the new Seth Rogen and “James Flacco” movie The Interview is the behavior of North Korea’s leadership. From the head-scratching series of public hangouts between their rotund ruler Kim Jong Un and ex-NBA sideshow Dennis Rodman (who was later kicked out of the country for vomiting and defecating all over a North Korean hotel), to the hacking of Sony over the release of a satire film, it’s obvious that the Kim’s are oh-so-obsessed with Hollywood. The late Kim Jong Il had a real love affair with Hollywood films and was reported to have over 30,000 movies in his collection, his favorites being all things James Bond, Friday the 13th, Rambo, and Godzilla.
Apparently, Kim Jong Un is less forgiving of Hollywood parodies than his father, who let Team America: World Police slip by without any threats to our safety. Or maybe the bespectacled ex-“Dear Leader” was just a really big South Park fan.
Though we may have to wait a long time to see it, the mythical assassination of Kim Jong Un in The Interview sounds pretty damn hilarious. Reports claim Kim Jong Un’s death is staged to the tune of Katy Perry’s “Firework” as a missile hits his helicopter causing his head—and ridiculous hairdo—to explode into smithereens.
It’s this grisly scenario that’s apparently set off a strange and unfortunate series of events, including a massive cyber-attack on Sony, threats against movie theaters screening the film, theater chains backing out of exhibiting it, and finally, Sony bending to the will of hackers and yanking the film altogether. Indeed, the Japanese-owned corporation has set a horrible precedent.
But have no fear my fellow Americans: it’s Larry Flynt to the rescue. With his proposed porn parody This Ain’t The Interview XXX set to film in 2015, Flynt has put his money where his big mouth is. And once again shows the world how it’s done.
Sony might be afraid of North Korea, but Flynt isn’t. He’s ready for the fight. “I’ve spent a lifetime fighting for the First Amendment, and no foreign dictator is going to take away my right to free speech,” Flynt told EW. “If Kim Jong Un and his henchmen were upset before, wait till they see the movie we’re going to make.”
Details on the movie are slim, but we know it will be a riff on The Interview’s plot—two bumbling idiots tasked by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong Un. With the freedom of expression that an XXX rating allows, I can only imagine the extreme acts that might be inflicted on Kim Jong Un in Flynt’s upcoming film. Will the North Korean dictator have a similarly strong reaction to an over-the-top porn flick plotting his demise, presumably starring characters named Seth Rimjob, James Fucko, and Kim Dong Uncut? Or perhaps Franco, meta-celeb extraordinaire, could star in the movie himself? After all, he’s already stripped down with Seth on national television.
President Obama has referred to Sony’s decision to pull The Interview as a “mistake.” You know what they say, one’s man’s trash is another man’s treasure. And for Larry Flynt, this might be a monumental opportunity to stick it to the dictator the best way he knows how.
“We cannot have a society in which some dictators someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States because if somebody is able to intimidate us out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing once they see a documentary that they don't like or news reports that they don't like,” proclaimed President Obama at his year-end press conference on Friday. “That's not who we are. That's not what America is about.”
Don’t worry, Mr. President. Since winning the landmark First Amendment case Hustler Magazine, Inc v. Falwell back in 1988, one in which fundamentalist minister Jerry Falwell sued the skin mag for a satirical ad of the prudish reverend describing his first sexual encounter (with his mother in an outhouse), the iconic porn producer has been relentless in his pursuit of justice. Woody Harrelson immortalized the man himself in Hollywood’s glamorized rendition of his colorful life, The People vs. Larry Flynt. The movie captures Flynt’s passion and his tenacious will when it comes to protecting our First Amendment rights. Easily considered one of the more influential First Amendment crusaders, it comes as no surprise to see Flynt boldly go where no one has gone before.
Only this time the government is clearly on his side.
