June 22 (UPI) -- Seth Rogen and his filmmaking partner Evan Goldberg experienced a feeling of deja vu watching U.S. President Donald Trump meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un this month.
Rogen and James Franco starred as fictional broadcast journalists recruited by a covert CIA agent to assassinate Kim in the 2014 comedy The Interview, which Rogen and Goldberg produced, directed and helped write.
"It's like imitating art a little too much," Goldberg said in a teleconference with Rogen, speaking to reporters ahead of the Season 3 release of their AMC adaptation of the Preacher graphic novels.
The Interview made headlines when its theatrical release was first canceled, then limited to independent theaters, TV and digital platforms because of the real-life leader's fury.
The computer system of Sony -- the studio behind the movie -- was hacked by North Korea. Tens of thousands of private documents, including copies of unreleased films, screenplays, financial information and personal emails, were released online.
Relations with the reclusive regime has changed dramatically since then.
Trump met Kim Jong Un in Singapore June 12 to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
"I didn't think that the vain, egocentric, talk-show host character that we portray in The Interview who gets swept up by Kim Jong Un and doesn't realize we're being manipulated would be the president of the United States," Rogen said. "But it seems like a possible dynamic nonetheless. So, I think that's what we were worried about more than anything."
"Yes, it's a little nuts," Goldberg said. "Nothing came of the summit except he made Kim Jong Un look kind of OK, which he is not.
"I feel like if you re-watch The Interview and pretend that [Franco's character] Dave Skylark was Trump, and then just turn the movie off before he realized he was bad, that's probably what happened," Rogen said.
Season 3 of Preacher premieres at 10 p.m. ET Sunday on AMC.
