The duo that created "South Park" has moved to the big screen

Web posted on: Monday, August 03, 1998 4:09:21 PM

From Correspondent Ron Tank

HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Take the creators of the envelope-pushing TV show "South Park" seen on Comedy Central, and the man who brought movie audiences the cinematic spoofs "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun," and you have a potent combination of silly laughs.

David Zucker ("Airplane!"), Matt Stone and Trey Parker ("South Park") have joined forces to create the movie "BASEketball."

The film -- which depicts the comical rise of a neo-sport that combines baseball and basketball -- had a modest opening this past weekend, taking in $3 million for 11th place on the box office list that was topped by the movie's antithesis, "Saving Private Ryan."

BASEketball: The fusing of basketball and baseball.

Match made in heaven

The blend of Zucker, Stone and Parker seems to be a match made in heaven. Zucker wrote the script, and says the "South Park" boys took to it immediately.

"That's what Matt said to Trey: 'This is the stupidest script we've ever read -- we have to do this," Zucker says.

Zucker says BASEketball is a real sport, made up by Zucker and friends a few years ago.

Clip - "Heads up!": 1.1Mb QuickTime Entire theatrical trailer 2.9Mb QuickTime File format info Please enable JavaScript

"It got to be an eight-team league, and there were three guys on a team and we played tournaments and for our championship game, they blocked off the street and we had bleachers set up," recalls Zucker.

That part of the story appears in the movie, then becomes fantasy when the game is transformed into a professional league, complete with announcers and cheerleaders -- and plenty of campy humor from Stone and Parker.

The movie also boasts some big-name actors, like Ernest Borgnine (shown here receiving CPR from Parker)

'We're hactors'

Both Stone and Parker admit when it comes to acting, they're winging it.

"We came up with a new word called 'hacting,' because we're hack actors, we're hactors," says Stone.

Despite their success with "South Park," Stone and Parker are relative newcomers in front of the camera. Most of their work was in film school in Colorado, because "no one else was gonna be in our stupid movies."

Now they're sharing screen time with veteran actors Robert Vaughn and Academy Award-winner Ernest Borgnine, "Baywatch"'s Yasmine Bleeth and Jenny McCarthy. They're obviously in the game.

Now it's up to audiences to decide if they're winners.