Dennis Rodman’s North Korea Trip Will Be Made Into a Hollywood Comedy?
Dennis Rodman's recent bizarre diplomatic mission to North Korea has inspired the story for an upcoming Hollywood comedy film titled "Diplomats". According to an article on the Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Fox pitched the concept of the film and has received the green light to proceed with the project.
Tim Story, known for directing "Ride Along", two "Fantastic Four" films, and "Barbershop", is onboard to direct "Diplomats". Peter Chernin will produce the film, while Jonathan Abrams will write its script.
Although Fox has not yet released details regarding the film's plot, it's probably safe to speculate that it's about a professional basketball player traveling to a communist country and getting into all sorts of outrageous adventures, all for the sake of establishing diplomatic relations.
Dennis Rodman, popularly known as "The Worm", went to North Korea last month with the intention of spreading "basketball diplomacy". His trip became very controversial due to his unlikely friendship with dictator Kim Jong Un.
He drew even more flak after defending his new friend's actions and blaming an innocent Kenneth Bae for being imprisoned in North Korea.
In an article on Rolling Stone, he said of the dictator, "He has to do his job, but he's a very good guy." After returning to the U.S., he commented, "I'm sorry for what's going on in North Korea, the certain situations." Although the basketball star did not go into detail about those "certain situations", it has probably something to do with the regime's staggering human rights violations.
When asked about the purpose of his trip, he said, "I'm not God, I'm not an ambassador, I'm no one. I just want to show the world the fact that we can really get along in sport. That is it."
Although Rodman maintained that he was not paid to visit North Korea, Kenny Anderson, another basketball player who went on a different trip but in the same country, claimed that he received "a few thousand dollars" for his visit.