The South Park Guys And Kendrick Lamar Are Making A Live Action Comedy - What We Know So Far
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creative minds behind "South Park," are tackling yet another movie venture — this time with rapper Kendrick Lamar in tow to star. The two collaborators previously helmed "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" in 1999, alongside a flurry of recent "South Park" TV films for Paramount Plus. They also delivered the war against terror satire "Team America: World Police" in 2004, but have been largely absent from film sets ever since.
Parker has historically inhabited the director's chair, while Stone writes (or sometimes co-writes with Parker) the screenplays. Of course, the duo have long been associated with their adult animation projects, meaning that a live action comedy will be somewhat new terrain for the creators. While Stone directed "Cannibal! The Musical" and "Orgazmo" in 1993 and 1997, respectively, his return to this particular realm of filmmaking comes after a 25 year hiatus.
So, what can we expect from the creative team that brought us those previously mentioned films alongside the Tony-winning musical "The Book of Mormon"? And what is Kendrick Lamar doing here? Let's dig into all of the information that's been revealed so far.
What is the movie going to be about?
Set to begin production this spring, the project is still yet to be titled. But a brief synopsis provided by Variety provides a glint of information surrounding the forthcoming film's plot:
The film will "depict the past and present coming to a head when a young Black man, who is interning as a slave re-enactor at a living history museum, discovers that his white girlfriend's ancestors once owned his."
Many have already drawn apt comparisons to existing movies like "Get Out" and "Antebellum" (and even the Keke Palmer vehicle "Alice"), but knowing Stone and Parker, this project won't play into established (and admittedly over-played) racial tropes. In this sense, parallels are already being made to "Sorry to Bother You," the insane feature from Boots Riley that riled up audiences with its balls-to-the-wall originality.
Early cast and crew details
The promise of a weird and exciting new narrative is exponentially increased due to writer Vernon Chatman's involvement in the script. Chatman served as the co-creator for many popular Adult Swim shows like "Wonder Showzen," "Xavier: Renegade Angel," and "The Heart, She Holler." With a penchant for the eerie and uncanny, hopefully Chatman can imbue the project's script with the same twisted sense of humor.
Of course, we have to talk about Kendrick. The Grammy-winning rapper's company PGLang will co-produce the movie with Stone and Parker's Park Country banner, with Paramount Pictures holding theatrical distribution, home release, and television licensing. Similarly, Paramount Plus will handle the streaming rights.
Paramount Pictures president and CEO Brian Robbins chimed in to express his excitement over the project:
"On behalf of Paramount Pictures and the wider ViacomCBS family, we look forward to ushering in the first theatrical collaboration from these creative visionaries, and galvanizing audiences worldwide around a powerful storytelling experience."
Kendrick Lamar's latest album drops
With this news arriving on the heels of the rapper's much-anticipated fifth album, "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers," fans are rightfully excited. Lamar's previous release, 2017's "Damn," garnered the artist a Pulitzer Prize for Music. On top of that, he has 13 Grammy Awards and six Billboard awards to his name.
While this would be Lamar's feature debut, the artist has held ties to cinema in the past. In 2018, he produced the soundtrack for the Ryan Coogler-directed "Black Panther." He also recorded an original song for the movie, "All the Stars," which featured SZA. He received an Oscar nomination for best original song and scooped up two more Grammys for the track.
We'll see shortly what Lamar has in store for us with "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers," and only time will tell what this cinematic collaboration entails. Chances are, it'll be something we definitely don't want to miss.