Seth Rogen recently went on record about the depiction of Kim Jong-un's death in The Interview and the extensive back-and-forth he had with Sony about the scene. 2014's The Interview remains one of the most controversial films of recent memory. The film follows the misadventures of "Skylark Tonight" host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen). They travel to North Korea at Kim Jong-un's (Randall Park) request for an interview. The CIA recruits Skylark and Rapaport to assassinate the North Korean Supreme Leader.

Upon discovering the premise of The Interview, North Korea threatened action against the United States, with Sony eventually delaying the release and reportedly re-editing the film to be less offensive. After Sony was hacked by the "Guardians of Peace," a group with ties to North Korea, and that same group threatened to attack theaters that showed the film, Sony opted to release the film for digital rental and in a small number of select theaters instead. The final film featured a graphic death scene for Kim Jong-un involving his helicopter being hit by a tank shell and his head exploding.

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According to Seth Rogen, who appeared in the latest episode of Corridor Crew's VFX Artists React YouTube series to discuss his career, Kim Jong-un's death scene was the subject of much debate between him and Sony. Rogen claims that a much more graphic version of the scene exists, but Sony pushed relentlessly for changes. "If there was going to be war with North Korea based on something in the movie, it was going to be because of this shot." Although Rogen cites Raiders of the Lost Ark's famous face-melting scene as the inspiration for filming Kim Jong-un's graphic head explosion scene, very little of the practical effects work made it into the final film due to arguments with Sony. Read Rogen's full comment below:

"This became the whole negotiation, [it] was like how much of the head do you see? How much do you not see? Can we obscure it with fire? Literally, the studios have their own visual effects people and they start changing the shot themselves, doing different versions of the shot, showing us versions of the shot. Yeah, it literally becomes like a frame-by-frame discussion. How many embers can hit his face? How long can it be on screen for? [It was] by far the thing that I've had the most discussion about in probably any one single part of any movie I've ever had anything to do with."

Seth Rogen and James Franco in The Interview

As it appears in the final film, Kim Jong-un's actual death is primarily obscured by digital fire added to appease Sony executives. The original shot that Rogen described sounded much more graphic, with the film's effects team having built a wax head that they then melted with heat lamps and blew up. Part of the practical effects work is still visible in the film, with small chunks of skull shooting off into the sky behind the wall of flame, but primarily it seems Sony was able to obscure much of the graphic content.

Considering some of the other material in the film, it's surprising there weren't more shots that concerned Sony. While The Interview may not have been a massive financial success, it did set an interesting precedent. Sony, it seems, was more than willing to delay the film and re-edit it to make it less offensive. Still, then-President Barack Obama publicly stated that he believed Sony had made a mistake when it bowed to North Korea's demands. It seems unlikely that audiences will get a film as publicly controversial as The Interview anytime soon. Still, perhaps, at some point in the future, an unrated version or director's cut will be released that features Rogen's original vision for Kim Jong-un's graphic death scene.

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Source: Corridor Crew