However, he would travel with Seth Rogen back to the country

Jan 26, 2015 14:16 GMT  ·  By
Dennis Rodman defends Kim Jong-un as a nice guy, gives his 2 cents on the Sony Hack and “The Interview”
   Dennis Rodman defends Kim Jong-un as a nice guy, gives his 2 cents on the Sony Hack and “The Interview”

The FBI can say what it wants about North Korea’s involvement in last year’s Sony Hack and how the country’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un hired cybercriminals to hack Sony because he was upset about his portrayal in the action comedy “The Interview,” but Dennis Rodman doesn’t believe a word of it.

North Korea, meaning his now-good friend (or at least acquaintance), wouldn’t be this stupid as to take offense and then such drastic action against a company for the mere fact of making a silly comedy, the former basketball superstar says in a new interview with THR.

A movie is not grounds for the hacking

The official line is that North Korea took offense with the film, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco as two American TV people who travel to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-un and eventually kill him for his crimes, and dispatched the Guardians of Peace to break into Sony’s servers, steal sensitive data and release it in batches until the bosses got the idea that they were serious about their threats and would pull the plug on the movie.

After movie scripts and email exchanges from some of the biggest names in the film industry were leaked, Sony did cancel the premiere of the film, but at the last moment, reconsidered and put the movie out. It is now its biggest online hit to date, if you’re keeping count.

Rodman doesn’t believe a word of FBI’s theory, telling The Hollywood Reporter that Kim Jong-un would simply not do this – and the reason is very simple: at this point, there have been so many comedies mocking North Korea that he couldn’t have stopped to take offense on this one in particular. It makes no sense, he says.

“If the North wanted to hack anything in the world, anything in the world, really, they are going to go hack a movie? Really?! How many movies have there been attacking North Korea? And they never hacked those. North Korea is going to hack a comedy, a movie that is really nothing? I can’t see that happening. Of all the companies… really? Over a movie?!” he asks.

It can’t be.

Dennis and “The Interview” and his own movie

Of course, there’s a reason why Rodman is bringing “The Interview” up: he has his own North Korea movie coming out at Slamdance, a film festival set up for those productions that don’t make it into Sundance.

The film is called “Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang,” and is actually a documentary about his second visit to North Korea, when he brought along former NBA players to organize a basketball game in honor of Kim Jong-un on his birthday.

He says “The Interview” is nothing compared to his own documentary, because that’s the real deal. He also says that he was actually in talks for the former, either to serve as consultant on North Korea stuff or for a cameo.

However, neither happened because he was busy at the time, so when he did get the chance to get back to Seth Rogen on it, “The Interview” had already gone into post-production.

Still, Rodman says, it wouldn’t be too late for Rogen to accompany him on another trip to the country, if he really wants to know what North Korea and Kim Jong-un really are like.

“I would still [take Rogen] now. I would ask Seth and all those involved in the movie to go to North Korea with me. And then do an interview with me about the movie,” he says.

Here’s to hoping Dennis Rodman isn’t holding his breath on that one.