Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic, entertainment, graphic novel, Guy Delisle, North Korea, Pyongyang, steve carell

Guy Delisle Says Goodbye To The Pyongyang Movie And Shares His Own Troubles With The Comic

Published Fri, 19 Dec 2014 09:00:05 -0600

Last updated Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:37:27 -0600

Yesterday, Guy Delisle discovered that the upcoming movie of his graphic novel Pyonyang, by and starring Steve Carell, had been cancelled as a result of situation regarding North Korea and the movie The Interview. But it's not the only problem he'd had with the country. He writes,

The filming was scheduled to start in March in Serbia and I got a phone call from Gore Verbinski. He shared with me how he envisioned the movie, I was excited and I feel very disappointed to learn today that the whole thing is cancelled (I can't imagine what the producer feels like after working on this for two years). What saddens me the most are the reasons that lead to this. One would have imagined that a huge corporation would not bend so easily under the threats of a group of hackers from North Korea. Apparently they hit a sensitive nerve.

In 2001, a few months after my return from North Korea, I was sending the first pages of my book to the animation studio directors who had sent me there. I thought that they would be amused to read how life was in Pyongyang, where their TV series was produced. The reaction was cold, I was told that I wasn't allowed to talk about my stay over there and that my contract had a confidentiality clause that prevented me from publishing a book on the subject.

I consulted with my editor at the time, L'Association, where I had published my first albums. Jean-Christophe Menu the director of this small publishing house really liked the idea and the first pages of the book. We looked for the confidentiality clause and couldn't find it. Finally he told me: too bad if we end up in court, it's a book we have to do.

Sadly, it is not a movie that New Regency have to do…

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