Oh man, remember the nineties?

With South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are in the unique position of being able to basically do whatever the hell they want (as famously documented in 6 Days to Air). While this near-total creative freedom produces a stinker of an episode once every three or four shows or so (taking chances on jokes that might not work is what makes it so good), it’s also allowed South Park to become the overall and most consistently comedically relevant show of the last 15 years. Having made a crapload of money on virtually everything they’ve touched, the last thing they need is notes from some studio exec who’ll probably be fired in the next six months. They have enough F-You money now that they could burn it just to keep the rest of their money warm, so it only makes sense for them to start their own studio and continue doing whatever the hell they want. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. These men are goddamned heroes and I will fight you if you disagree.

The new company is to be called Important Studios and hopes to be just that. With an estimated value of $300 million built on revenue from “South Park,” now in its 16th season on Comedy Central, and the Broadway megahit “The Book of Mormon,” the studio will have the power and money to approve television, movie and theater projects, including a big-screen version of “The Book of Mormon.”

On Friday, Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone were putting together the final news release to announce their studio. They settled on this quip: “Having worked with several different studios over the years, we came to realize that our favorite people in the world are ourselves.”

Important Studios will incorporate revenue from “South Park” and “The Book of Mormon,” as well as revenue from future projects. “The Book of Mormon,” one of the highest-grossing Broadway musicals in recent years, received nine Tony Awards in 2011 and has grossed more than $200 million.

That amount continues to grow because the New York production makes $1.6 million a week, according to the producers. A touring version of the show makes about $1.6 million a week, and another production in Chicago grosses $1.5 million a week. And the show is about to go into production in London.

Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker, who created the musical, are the largest shareholders in “The Book of Mormon,” followed by the film producer Scott Rudin and others. Among the first projects that Important Studios is likely to develop is a movie version of the musical. [NY Times]

These guys have been able to work outside Hollywood for basically their entire career, doing it their way and kicking ass pretty much the entire time. I most humbly hope for more of the same.

Though if they really want to make some money, the first order of business should be hiring Awesome-o. Have you heard his pitches? That robot’s a hit machine! He’s like a robot Tyler Perry, only more talented.

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I don’t want to make a habit out of talking about what happened on TV last night, because for one thing, that’s more WarmingGlow‘s bag, but I’d be a slapdash blogger if I didn’t mention last night’s South Park, which included a subplot starring our favorite megalomaniacal billionaire submarine captain, James Cameron, who’s also been known to direct the occasional film when he’s not hunting unicorn on his flying yacht. I won’t go into detail about how Cameron fit into the overall plot, but I’m including below a clip of my favorite bit from the show, where James Cameron pilots his submersible deep below the waves while listening to a Davy Crockett-style song called “James Cameron.”

This was the second South Park episode of the new season and their second home run, as far as I’m concerned. It’s in its 16th season now, and while there were a few rough patches early on, I think it’s possible to make the case that South Park has been funnier more consistently and for longer than The Simpsons (and obviously edgier, but you can’t really fault the Simpsons for not being on cable). Trey Parker is twice as funny and just as musically talented as Seth MacFarlane, but you don’t see Trey Parker being asked to host the Oscars. He’d scare the sh*t out of everyone there, which is probably why his show’s so damn good. But it’s much easier to dole out accolades to shows like Modern Family, because it incorporates a couple gay characters into its stew of old-fashioned sitcom tropes (the bumbling dad, the precocious child, the hilariously-accented foreigner, etc.), than it is to invite something as legitimately subversive as South Park to the party. Last night’s South Park was more important to our nation’s democracy than the presidential debates! Okay, that’s probably the booze talking, but it was pretty good. (*hic*)

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If you’re not a part of the snooty New York theater scene, you might not have been aware that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Book of Mormon musical has been playing to rave reviews and sold out shows on Broadway for about a month now.  That may or may not be a huge accomplishment considering their competition is stuff like Legally Blonde and the U2 Spider-Man play, but they did create it with Avenue Q‘s Robert Lopez, and I can confirm that Avenue Q is amazing.  Now several sites are reporting that Book of Mormon could be coming to theaters, and I mean the American kind, with popcorn and Coke, not those fruity pinko ones with the programs and the intermissions.  So why the question mark in the headline?  Well, here’s the quote at the crux of the reports, from Deadline’s Mike Fleming:

So what will happen when producer Scott Rudin inevitably shops the Broadway musical to become a movie musical? “We’ve learned in our careers that as long as something is successful, they will give you money for it,” Parker tells me. “They just want to make money in Hollywood, they don’t really care. As long as the musical continues to do well, I don’t think it’s going to be hard at all.”

So… does that mean Scott Rudin actually is shopping the Broadway musical as a movie musical?  Uh… maybe?  That’s the way most sites are reporting it.  As we’ve seen before, sometimes it’s hard to tell what the f*ck Mike Fleming is talking about.  In any case, there doesn’t seem to be any reason it couldn’t become a movie.  Also, it sounds awesome:

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South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are teaming up with a writer of the puppet play Avenue Q to bring Mormon Musical to Broadway.

“Mormon Musical” will start rehearsals next month and star Cheyenne Jackson.
The new show is “hilarious – very acerbic and biting,” said Jackson, whose last Broadway show was “Xanadu.”
It deals with the lives and loves of Mormons and “offends everybody, but [also] does what ‘South Park’ does best, which is by the end, it comes around and has something great to say,” Jackson said. [NY Post]

I’m pretty wary whenever pop culture deals with Mormons because I love making fun of them, and all it would take is one or two A-holes to completely ruin it for me.  But Avenue Q is pretty much the best play ever and the Mormon episode of South Park (you can watch the full episode for free here) is one of the most honest (yet still funny) portrayals of Mormons I’ve ever seen.  Bottom line, it’s going to be a shame when they outbreed us all.  In fact, it’s a travesty that there are so many zombie movies when the Mormon invasion theme is completely untapped.  Mormons are scarier than zombies because they smile all the time and have stupid haircuts.  Plus they drink pee and consume the flesh of the unborn.  So I’ve heard.

Supposedly, this is part one (part two after the jump) of a 1995 corporate training video made by pre-South Park Trey Parker and Matt Stone.  Universal comissioned the video, so the story goes, after the studio was bought by Seagram’s and wanted to reassure people that, despite their new ownership, they would remain artist friendly.

The story sounds fishy to me, because in 1995, I don’t know what the studio would’ve had to go on besides Cannibal the Musical and an animated short Parker and Stone made in college – both of which would’ve been clues that Universal would get what they supposedly got: a really funny video they couldn’t use.  Then again, movie studio execs are notoriously stupid.

Anyway, regardless of the real story behind it, it has cameos from Sly Stallone, Michael J. Fox, Brian Grazer, Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Angela Lansbury and your mom.  Ha, just kidding about that last one.  Unless your mom is Angela Lansbury. 

[Thanks to Nominus for the tip]