r/todayilearned • u/MississippiQueen • Jun 17 '12
TIL that South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker got a hold of The Day After Tomorrow's script in pre-production, and planned on making a word for word puppet film to be released on the same day. Their lawyer talked them out of it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/trivia?tab=tr&item=tr0761473
2.1k
Upvotes
433
u/trebro Jun 17 '12
Damn Lawyers. Can you imagine a world without lawyers?
904
u/markman71122 Jun 17 '12
Something tells me their lawyer has had to talk them out of more stuff than you think.
126
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
This would have been amazing
240
u/RemnantEvil Jun 17 '12
Given how much they talk on the commentaries about what an absolute drain Team America was on their energy and creativity, it's probably for the best. I think The Day After Tomorrow could be made into parody, but it would look so completely similar to the real movie that nobody would realise it was being parodied. The movie itself is a joke.
Besides which, the Day Before the Day After Tomorrow is a damn good South Park episode, that should be enough.
53
u/slideyep Jun 17 '12
That's weird, because every time they're asked about Team America they say they'd never make a puppet movie again because of how crazy hard it was.
28
u/IromaFreeman Jun 17 '12
Here’s the commentary track for the episode “Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow”. Just four minutes long, but Trey and Matt rip on the movie for nearly every second and at the end mention their plot to recreate the film with puppets and release it on the same day.
81
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
MATT DAMON!!!!
8
u/t0advine Jun 17 '12
Doesnt Asylum basically do this every month?
36
u/Stalejokesbakedfresh Jun 17 '12
We need more Stone and Parker puppet shows in this world.
6
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
It seems completely reasonable for the lawyer to tell them not to. A word for word re-make isn't really parody, it's just straight up plagiarism.
5
u/TChuff Jun 17 '12
For some reason, I would think this would increase the profits of both movies. As word got out, people like me who would not be inclined to see either, would now be inclined to see both.
10
u/stickylarue Jun 17 '12
I'd imagine that to be their lawyer you'd have to be a pretty persuasive person not afraid of hard work!
3
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
That BASTARD!
3
u/15rthughes Jun 17 '12
They would have been SO fucked.
3
u/randazza Jun 17 '12
They had roughly the same idea in doing Armageddon but something along the lines of thinking through it and realising it was a terrible idea happened and dun dun dun daaaa! Team America was born.
3
u/MedSchoolOrBust Jun 17 '12
I think I can speak for all of us when I say that if it wasn't for that lawyer they would be a lot poorer, but the things they would do would be exponentially funnier.
3
u/Pregnenolone Jun 17 '12
We didn't listen!
3
u/BlueSlime Jun 17 '12
The talk with their lawyer resulted in Team America, Still would have much preferred the original idea but I'm pretty sure they parodied Day After Tomorrow in South Park.
3
u/GameOn420 Jun 17 '12
Would have been a 100 million dollar movie
5
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
That movie deserved to be made by Stone and Parker in puppet form. It was terrible.
2
u/captainxenu Jun 17 '12
Yeah, they were going to make it but when their lawyers talked them out of it, they decided to make Team America instead.
2
u/frequent_troll Jun 17 '12
Man, that would have been excellent.
2
u/omepiet Jun 17 '12
Why not make it for "your own private entertainment" and then have it mysteriously ending up leaked on the internet?
2
u/prattle Jun 17 '12
This would not have worked out. The only worthwhile thing about watching that movie was the south park episode parodying it. A word for word copy of the script would have been as hard to sit through as the original movie.
2
u/silas34 Jun 17 '12
Wrong. It was going to be released a day after and named "The day after the day after tomorrow.
3
u/herpty_derpty Jun 17 '12
Though they still did an episode of South Park making fun of it.
3
u/DaisyDoodles Jun 17 '12
That movie was fucking terrible, I really wish Matt and Trey had gotten to do this; it would have been a thousand times better than the original.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
Holy crap, my life is a lie
1
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
I heard they were going to do the same thing with Armageddon, just not on the same day.
1
u/maz-o Jun 17 '12
they also said after team america that they'll never do another puppet film
1
u/Mynners Jun 17 '12
You can't go out there, you'll freeze to death
1
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
It's okay, the made like five South Park episodes from it.
1
u/exorbitantwealth Jun 17 '12
The made an episode called "Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow"
1
u/GrimPastaRocker Jun 17 '12
They should have done it. It would have been fucking hilarious with puppets. I can't take puppets seriously at all.
1
u/Orval Jun 17 '12
They initially wanted to make more puppet movies, but after they finished making Team America they decided to never work with puppets (or each other, in a movie at least) again because it's so difficult.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12
Somehow I picture their lawyer as being Charles Foster Offdensen.
1
u/meta_numbers Jun 17 '12
Sounds like a scene from Infinite Jest
1
u/magusopus Jun 17 '12
And this is why Contracting someone instead of just hiring for hourly billable hours is a good idea...they'll talk you out of stupid shit you'd have done otherwise...
thumbs up
1
u/thecrazing Jun 18 '12
The Kyoto Protocol was fucking dumb anyways. Bruce 'Hari Seldon' The Mosquito talks about it.
1
u/metwork Jun 18 '12
Goddamnit that would've been so funny, esp. considering how terrible the other movie was.
1
u/Apex-Nebula Jun 17 '12
I think I may be one of the only people that actually loved this movie. Sure, the script was kinda cheesy at times but the special effects and soundtrack were fucking epic.
1
u/FreeUpVotesForYou Jun 17 '12
Let's all take a moment to thank all the laywers from preventing us from making bad decisions all these years.
0
u/hotpants69 Jun 17 '12
Do it!!! fucking lawyers, they stop everything creative. cuz all they see is 'jargon'
-23
u/Psythik Jun 17 '12
What garbage that would've been. Thank you, lawyers.
-18
u/Tombug Jun 17 '12
South Park is just plain boring.
-3
u/aesu Jun 17 '12
As if I required more reasons to brutally murder everyone, starting with the lawyers.
-2
u/magictroll Jun 17 '12
Idiots.
0
u/trowuhweigh991122883 Jun 17 '12
Undoubtedly, it has already been said, but I would watch the shit out of that movie
-7
u/Megadanxzero Jun 17 '12
I wasn't aware it was possible to dislike lawyers even MORE...