Sony Schedules Seth Rogen’s ‘The Interview’ For Christmas

Having moved Cameron Crowe’s untitled project out of Christmas to summer 2015, Sony Pictures has decided to drop Seth Rogen‘s controversial comedy The Interview into that date. The action-comedy starring James Franco and Rogen — who directed with Evan Goldberg — initially was set for October 10, so it moves it into a time when college kids start coming into the marketplace on school break.  “The combination of Seth, Evan, and James is pure comedic magic,” Sony President of Worldwide Distribution Rory Bruer said in a statement. “In our early screenings of The Interview, we’ve seen that they’ve delivered yet again, and we’re thrilled to be making the move to Christmas – one of the most important moviegoing days of the year and the perfect date to show off their brand of comedy.”

The Interview, directed  by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, centers on a celebrity tabloid TV show called Skylark Tonight whose producers discover that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a fan of the show. They plan to travel to North Korea, and then the CIA intervenes, recruiting them to assassinate the Korean leader. The film has been very controversial given the chilly relationship between the U.S. and North Korea, which last month threatened to nuke the White House.

The film joins four other films opening wide on Christmas Day: Paramount’s Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Disney’s Into The Woods, the Weinstein Co’s Paddington and Universal’s Unbroken.

The screenplay is by Dan Sterling, and it is produced by Rogen, Goldberg and James Weaver.