Set Report: "Team America: World Police"

[Khephra]

snip.......

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.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/040810b.php

I'm disappointed that so much of the film seems devoted to smashing "Hollywood liberals", but I still have the feeling it's going to hurt the Bushies. They've already been pissed off at just the ads, so who knows :shrug: .