Anyone who works in the film industry will tell you that making a movie can be a hellish and gruelling ordeal that pits countless variables against everyone involved in the production, and each one can potentially derail your entire project. That said, what’s happening to The Interview is just ridiculous.
If you’ve been living underground for the past couple of weeks, the Seth Rogen and James Frnaco comedy has been at the centre of an ongoing international incident involving North Korea, a band of mysterious hackers, the US government, and an all-out shit storm over at Sony Pictures Entertainment, the film’s distributor.
Now, The Interview has been hit with its latest bout of trouble. According to Billboard, two South Korean pop stars, Tiger JK and Yoon Mi Rae, a husband and wife duo who frequently collaborate, are alleging their track ‘Pay Day’ was used in the film without their permission.
Naturally, Tiger JK, Yoon Mi Rae, and their agency, FeelGhoodMusic, are a little upset about the unlicensed use of their music, especially given that they were initially in talks about licensing the track to the film, and they’ve decided to take the matter to court.
“There were initial discussions about including the song in the film score, but negotiations stopped so we were under the impression that it wasn’t happening,” a press statement read. “It was only after the film was released that we became aware of the song’s unauthorized use, without taking the appropriate and necessary steps to complete a contract with the artists.”
A FeelGhoodMusic spokesperson told Billboard that their artists were “hesitant” to allow the song to appear in the film, given that its plot, which revolves around the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, is a “very sensitive topic in Korea” at the moment.
For now, it seems Sony Pictures will be spared in the ongoing legal action by FeelGhoodMusic, who plan on taking the agency who handled the negotiations with Sony, DFSB, to court. Readers can check out the segment from The Interview which features ‘Pay Day’ below.
