Seth Rogen is ready to get back in the director's chair 12 years after his last film 'almost started a war'

It’s been 12 years since Seth Rogen’s 2014 flick The Interview went viral for all the wrong reasons, and during that time he’s steered clear of directing another feature film.

But now, Rogen admits that enough time has passed for him to feel comfortable getting back behind the wheel.

While Rogen has directed multiple TV episodes since the incident – including on his hit series The Studio – he and close friend and collaborator, Evan Goldberg, have been a little “gun-shy” when it comes to films.

The Interview was co-directed by Rogen and Goldberg, with Rogen also starring in the movie alongside James Franco.

The pair played a producer and journalist duo who land an interview with a North Korean dictator named Jon-Un Kim, and are then recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.

The film prompted the North Korean government to threaten the United States if it was released, and a massive cyberattack then hit the film’s studio, Sony. It has since become an infamous blunder in Hollywood’s history.

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Speaking about the potential of returning to the director’s chair, Rogen admitted to the Hollywood Reporter that “it’s been a while” since his last feature film, since “it almost started a war”.

“That made us maybe a little gun-shy for a little while,” he said.

“We eased back in through television, and it seemed to go well, so we do talk about maybe, hopefully, directing a film next year, actually.”

He shared that he and Golberg came to the decision after realising that in today’s Hollywood, the pair “not the biggest problem anymore.”

Rogen also recently opened up about his current relationship with The Interview co-star, James Franco.

The two were longtime collaborators, but after Franco was hit with allegations of sexual misconduct in 2018, they seem to have drifted apart.

“It is a very personal thing. There’s the public-facing side of it, which I’ve spoken about, and I have the same stance publicly that I’ve had, and I think the proof is in the pudding – I have not worked with him in years,” Rogen told The New York Times.

“But the personal side of it is just so nuanced, and it involves people that I don’t know if I should be dragging into this. I don’t know what I would benefit from getting deeply into it.

“Nothing has changed since the last time I talked about all this, and I haven’t worked with him in a really long time and I have no plans to.”