Hours after news surfaced saying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was in dire health, Hulu has bumped The Interview to one of the “Top Picks” on the streaming surface. The satirical movie featuring Seth Rogen and James Franco was released in 2014 to less-than-stellar reviews but now, the feature is as relevant as ever. In fact, the movie has been a worldwide trend on Twitter for the majority of the day as major global news bureaus continued to report on the status of the leader. Now, Hulu is making sure people logging onto the streamer know very well the movie is available to stream on the service — that much is evident from the second you launch the app.
News first surfaced of Kim’s dire state last week as CNN reported brain dead after a botched surgery, something the government of South Korea quickly refuted. Fast forward a week and TMZ reported Kim had died after a “botched” heart surgery. The latest news comes from Reuters, which reports the government of China has sent a team of medical professionals to the isolated country to advise on the health of its leader.
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Due to the politics involved with the release of The Interview, the production was mired in controversy since it was first announced. Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the film features Rogen and Franco as they travel to North Korea to set up a broadcast interview with a fictionalized version of Kim, played by Ant-Man and the Wasp star Randall Park.
At one point, the North Korean government threatened action against the United States should Sony be allowed to release the film. Due to various hacking scandals by a group the FBI suggests was tied to North Korea, Sony delayed the film’s release. As tensions escalated and the same hacking group — self-proclaimed as the Guardians of Peace — began threatening theater chains with acts of terrorism, Sony pulled the film from a wide theatrical release and instead offered it only as a digital rental beginning December 24, 2014.
Thanks to a relatively small production budget and the controversy surrounding the feature, it’s expected Sony still ended up making a profit on the movie, despite only showing on 331 theater screens during its very limited theatrical run.
