Apparently Hollywood is now too terrified of North Korea to dare offend it in any way. Following the cancellation of The Interview, Regency has pulled another movie set to explore the dictatorship.

In light of the hacking scandal which rocked Sony, and eventually led them to cancel The Interview (with no plans to release it at all), Regency has pulled the plug on their own North Korean-themed movie.

The Gore Verbinski thriller Pyongyang starring Steve Carell was set to start filming in March 2015.

Based on a graphic novel by Guy Delisle, Pyongyang is a semi-autobiographical account of the creator’s experiences traveling through North Korea.

It draws out the parallels between the closed totalitarian state and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, as Delisle experiences such things as reverse walking, the absence of disabled and elderly people (who are allegedly being experimented on), and the cult of personality of Kim Jong-un’s father Kim Jong-il.

He notes how the citizens have clearly been brainwashed, and feels an oppressing paranoia which carries through to his black-and-white graphic novel.

In other words: this is not a comedy.

Steve Carell himself commented on the Sony hacking scandal yesterday on Twitter. It is unclear whether he was also referring to the cancellation of his own project:

Pyongyang sounds like it would have been an interesting movie, which would allow Western audiences a real glimpse into the closed-off North Korea.

The only complaints we have heard about The Interview has been that it is in “bad taste” to ridicule and allegedly assassinate a fictional version of a current world leader (whether or not he puts people in concentration camps). That argument cannot be applied here.

So why has Pyongyang been scrapped? It is not offensive; it is no more offensive than The Prince and Me (a horribly inaccurate account of Danish people) or Eurotrip, or that The Hangover movie where they go to Thailand.

But the hackers’ threat of terrorist acts have rocked Hollywood, not only because of the lives that are at stake, but because of the monetary risk of any studio which becomes a target.

Other studios put pressure on Sony to cancel The Interview, because they feared for their own movie sales over the holidays. Shopping malls were worried that their proximity to movie theaters would impact their influx of holiday shoppers.

Regency obviously doesn’t want to be the new Sony, which is now being sued by its employees, and in everyone’s bad graces.

But are we really going to tip-toe around North Korea, allowing the nation which bullies and oppresses its own people to bully and oppress the United States? So far, it looks like yes.

Update: Gore Verbinski has released a statement via Deadline, condemning Fox’s decision:

Yesterday, I was told by New Regency and Fox that Fox will no longer be distributing the film. Prior to that, the film was green lit and fully funded by New Regency with Fox distributing. I have been told in no uncertain words that based on the situation at Sony, Fox has now decided to not distribute the film. Without a distributor, New Regency was forced to shut the film down.

My thoughts:

I find it ironic that fear is eliminating the possibility to tell stories that depict our ability to overcome fear.

Gore Verbinski