This labyrinthine tale gets stranger by the day, so let's go from the beginning:

James Franco and Seth Rogen make a film called The Interview. The plot details an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea finds out about the film and is outraged, labelling it "an act of war". Undeterred, Sony press on with the release of the film. It's just North Korea, right guys?

In November, Sony is hacked by a collective operating under the name Guardians Of Peace (GOP), who leak unreleased films, private information about Sony employees and an awful lot of very embarrassing company emails, including ones that express concern about The Interview being "desperately unfunny". Yesterday, GOP even threatened to launch a 9/11-style attack on any cinemas showing the film. 

Many suspect GOP to be North Korea's tech team, though the country has denied these claims. Now, Korean activists are planning to airlift DVD copies of The Interview into North Korea via hydrogen balloons. Yes. You heard that right. 

Park Sang Hak is a North Korean defector who runs an organisation called Fighters For A Free North Korea. With a little help from the Human Rights Foundation, Park has spent years using balloons to infiltrate the Hermit Kingdom's airspace to drop DVDs of banned Western films and DVD players. Past balloon drops have included Titanic, Braveheart and Battlestar Galactica.

Thor Halvorssen, the founder of the Human Rights Foundation, told the Hollywood Reporter: "Viewing any one of these is a subversive act that could get you executed, and North Koreans know this, given the public nature of the punishments meted out to those who dare watch entertainment from abroad. Despite all of that there is a huge thirst for knowledge and information from the outside world."

"North Koreans risk their lives to watch Hollywood films and The Interview is tremendously threatening to the Kims. They cannot abide by anything that portrays them as anything other than a god. This movie destroys the narrative."

The next balloon drop isn't scheduled until January 2015. The Interview probably won't be out on DVD then, unless it's rushed straight onto disc – but Halvorssen says he'll be adding copies to the drops as soon as possible.

North Koreans, brace yourselves: a "desperately unfunny" film about Dear Leader is coming your way.

Watch The Interview trailer below: