We live in a time of unparalleled danger. Weapons of Mass Destruction are being offered to terrorists all over the world. Global chaos is about to consume every country on Earth, and there is only one hope for humanity. The elite members of:
Years ago, after finishing the highly acclaimed movie spin-off "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" based on their hit Comedy Central animated series, creators Matt Stone & Trey Parker vowed they'd never do another movie again - certainly not whilst they were still at work on the show. Not too long after though, they changed their minds and decided that during the mid-season hiatus of the eigth year of "South Park", they'd come up with something. About that time Parker saw for the first time the 60's British sci-fi cult series "Thunderbirds" which used the famous 'super-marionation' technique, in other words the characters were string puppets. That's when it hit Parker - why not do a 'marionette movie'.
Inspired, the guy called around about securing the film rights to the "Thunderbirds" show, only to discover Universal had already taken them and was developing a movie with Jonathan Frakes directing. His response was only natural - "Jonathan Frakes is helming a puppet movie?" Nope, his was a live-action take on the show. Thus the idea of an original puppet movie was still quite feasible. Their first attempt was to do a scene-by-scene movie based on this Summer's environmental disaster action epic "The Day After Tomorrow" for which they had the script, but the legal department quickly put a kabosh on that idea.
Thus the idea of "Team America: World Police" was born, a film which follows an international police force dedicated to maintaining global stability. The story follows Gary Johnston, a rising Broadway star who's reluctantly recruited by "Team America" to go undercover and expose the power hungry North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il who's brokering a deal to sell weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. Along the way they must fight enemies on all sides (including a group of Hollywood liberals such as Alec Baldwin, Liv Tyler, Matt Damon, George Clooney and more) to stop the bad guys, and traverse the globe across Paris, Cairo, Panama, South Dakota and Korea to do battle.
It wouldn't be a Stone/Parker movie without all the usual trimmings - it's a rude, biting, very contemporary satire of world politics and Hollywood action films but plays itself totally straight and includes a few "Bruckheimer-esque" musical numbers to boot including dancing soldiers and singing world leaders. There's plenty of talking points from funny attacks at figures such as Michael Moore to what looks to be the most unforgettable sequence - an extended puppet sex scene. However if there's one thing to note about this movie, it's that making it looks a lot harder than it appears.
Located in a warehouse complex near the Sony Pictures Studio Lot in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City, the "Team America" production is surprisingly massive. The miniature sets still take up a lot of space, as does storage for all the puppets and their gear. In many ways it looks the same as any movie set bar one thing - no star trailers. Still, just because there's no actors to thrown tantrums, halt shooting or demand outrageous fees, it doesn't mean the film is any less of a challenge. In fact in many ways the movie looks far more difficult to shoot than a live-action film due to the delicacy of the miniature elements.
Whilst the cast may be just the two guys voices and some very detailled plastic carvings, the crew are all professionals. Director of Photography Bill Pope ("Spider-Man 2", "The Matrix") is responsible for the film's look, long time "Muppets" man Jim Dultz and designer David Rockwell (the man behind such things as the look of the Broadway redux of "Hairspray" to the Kodak Theatre Oscar venue) handle the elaborate production design. Costume Designer Karen Patch ("Royal Tenenbaums", "School of Rock") and her team handle the immense workload of outfits required for the film's 250 different characters.
The result is a very slick professional looking film that's being completed in record time on a moderate budget despite some very elaborate trappings. Most movies take nearly two years to go from script to screen, "Team America" is doing the same in the space of a mere few months. To give you an idea, by the time you are reading this shooting should be just about wrapped. The guys then have just a little over a fortnight to edit the movie, September to finish off post production (score, added effects, etc.) and must deliver it to the studio by the start of October. Following two weeks of press, Parker and Stone have about one day off before getting back to work on the second half of the eigth season of "South Park" through til early in the new year.
Thus the guys are understandably exhausted right now, even though they seem to be loving doing the film. Neither one are afraid to admit the frustrations they've encountered with using the marionettes. Going in they expected the more complicated action scenes involving the explosions and vehicles would take up the most time when in fact they were relatively easy compared with the more simple tasks such as puppets walking or taking a drink. The 'drink' scene for example took up somewhere in the order of about four dozen takes before the guys finally got it to work properly.
These aren't exactly amateurs doing the job either. Around 35 of the world's best puppeters are involved in the day to day puppet manipulation which is handled by both remote control and string from the puppeteer who's suspended by a large wide forklift style system above the assorted sets from which they manipulate the various characters movements and expressions. Each of the puppets (especially the major characters) have been given very detailled levels of expression.
The strings of the puppets are proving an interesting challenge. Whilst most of them are remaining in to convey this is a puppet movie, other are being digitally removed - most notably some of the leg and feet ones. The reason is mostly due to visibility. The strings are supposed to be there and more than 99% of the time they will be, but the odd one that gets directly in the way of the action will be erased so as not to prove a distraction and pull people out of the story.
The removable skin faces means that yes on the lot there is a 'head room' filled with puppet heads featuring almost all the casts visages along with celebrities and world leaders. The recreation of Kim Jong Il (complete with his own special cheek jowls) is especially astounding but there's laughs to be had from some unexpected appearances by the likes of some rather infamous historical figures (you'll have to see the film to figure out whom).
Everything in the film is set mostly at a 1/3 scale of normal, although for large and wide shots 1/6, 1/12 and 1/24 scale creations have had to be made simply to encompass everything. Remember that despite the comedy value, this is an 'action epic' and everything is done with those sort of grand scale visuals in mind. Most of the filming on the day visited was the desert scenes outside Cairo where recreations of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and a stretch of road were being used to film scenes of the team on the ground in Egypt pursuing bad guys.
Nearby, leftover pieces from earlier sets lay around. Bits of the Panama and Paris sequences (recreations of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Arc De Triumphe have been kind of smooshed together for scale) were still visible. construction workers were busy assembling the 'Team America' headquarters - a glossy Bond meets 60's designed pad complete with wood panelled interiors and curved windows - Brady Bunch meets James Bond in a way.
One group of people really working the hard yards is the costume department. Making the outfits for the 250 characters is a tall order, especially when you consider they're dressing all the extras and have to have many costumes on standby in case of usage. All in all they esitmate there to be around 1,200 different full outfits made for the shoot, each one custom built and covered in intricate detail. There's recreations of everything from designer scarfs and bags to full military outfits covered in medals and miniature insignia.
The costumes themselves are proving difficult to handle as well. Aside from being able to put on puppets (so the strings cause major hassles when adding the clothes), the various scenes (eg. the desert) are harsh on the clothes which aren't exactly machine washable. These clothes had to be handled all day and one person's greasy finger which might not stand out on a Brad Pitt suit, leaves one hell of a visible mark on a puppet outfit. Fabrics as well had to be very finely detailled, otherwise elements like striped pants or casual dresses with colour swirls looked silly in miniature.
Still, it all pulls together very well. Whilst there they were shooting two of the team arguing in their armoured van and shouting out on loudspeaker to terrorists to halt in their tracks. Despite their exhaustion, everyone involved seems to be really proud of the certainly unique production they're mounting here. The script is great, the clips shown so far at special events are receiving rave applause and it all looks like the release on October 15th should be hopefully as well received as their last film effort has been. Go Team, Go!!
Source:
DarkHorizons.com
