Godzilla vs. "South Park" Guys
Tue Aug 22, 5:00 AM
Godzilla is going to be getting the Tom Cruise treatment from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
The crass cut-ups behind Comedy Central's South Park, have clinched a deal with Paramount Pictures to develop two live-action features, their first outings with flesh-and-blood actors in nearly a decade. The first project will be a high school comedy titled My All-American; the second, a spoofy homage to rubber-suited, Tokyo-leveling beasties, Giant Monsters Attack Japan! (The latter recalls South Park's first-season-ending episode, "Mecha Streisand," in which Barbara Streisand transforms into a Godzilla-like creature to battle the Cure's Robert Smith.)
According to Variety, My All-American will be written by Jeff Roda and Giant Monsters by Under Seige scribe J.F. Lawton.
Parker will helm both pics, while Stone will produce through the pair's newly renamed Important Pictures shingle. They will also collaborate with the two screenwriters in honing the stories.
While South Park remains a small-screen hit, and its 1999 movie version was a critical success and did solid business, the two have had trouble translating their comic sensibilities to the big screen. Parker's previous live-action directing credits include the little-seen Cannibal: The Musical! (1996) and Orgazmo (1997); the pair also wrote and starred in the live-action 1998 bomb BASEketball, which was directed by David Zucker. Additionally, they codirected, cowrote and provided many of the voices for 2004's marionette-based spoof Team America: World Police, which also failed to spark much interest at the box office.
"We learned from the last two films that these can't all be self-generated," Stone told the trade paper. "Trey and I are script whores, so we'll be very involved in shaping these projects. We've averaged a movie every five years. We'd like to make more and produce films that give other directors a chance."
Monsters will also be supervised veteran producer Sean Daniels and Nickelodeon Movies, which earlier this month released the animated comedy Barnyard and last year's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
There's no word on casting. "Neither of these movies feel like vehicles for big stars, but this will be our opportunity to find out if there are any actors left who want to work with us," Stone said in Variety.
As they've done for the past 10 years, Parker and Stone will work on the films during their hiatus from South Park, which is currently in the midst of its 10th envelope-pushing, Kenny-killing season. Last fall, the cartoon masterminds signed a new pact with Comedy Central that will keep Cartman and the gang on the air for at least another three years.
That relationship turned rocky for a time when Comedy Central refused to rebroadcast their Cruise-skewering episode "Trapped in the Closet," after reportedly fielding pressure from the star (Camp Cruise denied the allegation). Parker and Stone recently told reporters at the Television Critics Association's annual press tour that they thought about not doing any movies with the cable network's parent company if they continued to ban the episode. Comedy Central placed "Trapped" back in the rerun rotation after it garnered an Emmy nomination earlier this summer (the show lost out last weekend to The Simpsons).
They also weren't too happy when network bosses censored the image of Mohammed from April's special two-part cliffhanger, "Cartoon Wars," and initially balked on reairing "Bloody Mary," about a Virgin Mary statue bleeding from its rear end, last December after complaints from the Catholic League.
If all goes according to plan, My All-American High will start shooting in the first half of 2007 and production on Giant Monsters will most likely get rolling in 2008.
Tue Aug 22, 5:00 AM
Godzilla is going to be getting the Tom Cruise treatment from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
The crass cut-ups behind Comedy Central's South Park, have clinched a deal with Paramount Pictures to develop two live-action features, their first outings with flesh-and-blood actors in nearly a decade. The first project will be a high school comedy titled My All-American; the second, a spoofy homage to rubber-suited, Tokyo-leveling beasties, Giant Monsters Attack Japan! (The latter recalls South Park's first-season-ending episode, "Mecha Streisand," in which Barbara Streisand transforms into a Godzilla-like creature to battle the Cure's Robert Smith.)
According to Variety, My All-American will be written by Jeff Roda and Giant Monsters by Under Seige scribe J.F. Lawton.
Parker will helm both pics, while Stone will produce through the pair's newly renamed Important Pictures shingle. They will also collaborate with the two screenwriters in honing the stories.
While South Park remains a small-screen hit, and its 1999 movie version was a critical success and did solid business, the two have had trouble translating their comic sensibilities to the big screen. Parker's previous live-action directing credits include the little-seen Cannibal: The Musical! (1996) and Orgazmo (1997); the pair also wrote and starred in the live-action 1998 bomb BASEketball, which was directed by David Zucker. Additionally, they codirected, cowrote and provided many of the voices for 2004's marionette-based spoof Team America: World Police, which also failed to spark much interest at the box office.
"We learned from the last two films that these can't all be self-generated," Stone told the trade paper. "Trey and I are script whores, so we'll be very involved in shaping these projects. We've averaged a movie every five years. We'd like to make more and produce films that give other directors a chance."
Monsters will also be supervised veteran producer Sean Daniels and Nickelodeon Movies, which earlier this month released the animated comedy Barnyard and last year's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
There's no word on casting. "Neither of these movies feel like vehicles for big stars, but this will be our opportunity to find out if there are any actors left who want to work with us," Stone said in Variety.
As they've done for the past 10 years, Parker and Stone will work on the films during their hiatus from South Park, which is currently in the midst of its 10th envelope-pushing, Kenny-killing season. Last fall, the cartoon masterminds signed a new pact with Comedy Central that will keep Cartman and the gang on the air for at least another three years.
That relationship turned rocky for a time when Comedy Central refused to rebroadcast their Cruise-skewering episode "Trapped in the Closet," after reportedly fielding pressure from the star (Camp Cruise denied the allegation). Parker and Stone recently told reporters at the Television Critics Association's annual press tour that they thought about not doing any movies with the cable network's parent company if they continued to ban the episode. Comedy Central placed "Trapped" back in the rerun rotation after it garnered an Emmy nomination earlier this summer (the show lost out last weekend to The Simpsons).
They also weren't too happy when network bosses censored the image of Mohammed from April's special two-part cliffhanger, "Cartoon Wars," and initially balked on reairing "Bloody Mary," about a Virgin Mary statue bleeding from its rear end, last December after complaints from the Catholic League.
If all goes according to plan, My All-American High will start shooting in the first half of 2007 and production on Giant Monsters will most likely get rolling in 2008.
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