Matt Stone and Trey Parker have made a career off provocative comedy, and it seemed they almost made something that would have surely upset plenty of people. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the South Park creators almost made a Donald Trump deepfake movie that was scrapped when the pandemic hit.
Production through their deepfake company Deep Voodoo was getting going with actor Peter Serafinowicz (Shaun of the Dead). Just like South Park, the creators needed timeliness for a movie involving Donald Trump. Through the pandemic and the election of Joe Biden, that ran out, and as Stone said, “it’s sort of on hold.” Still, Parker went on to explain the premise and some hints about what would have happened in the film that was titled Deep Fake: The Movie.
“It was about a guy who looked exactly like Trump because we deepfake Trump’s face onto him. And it was this whole funny thing because, of course, it ends up with Trump just naked and getting run through the wringer and everything, and that’s why it was so funny and so timely.”
South Park creators holding onto deepfake movie involving Donald Trump
The casting of the John Wick and Shaun of the Dead actor was from a previous deepfake project. The South Park creators made Sassy Justice, which involved a deepfaked Donald Trump. In ways, the successful video was a test for the feature-length film. It also marked the first project to come out of Deep Voodoo. Sassy Justice has over 2 million views from its October 2020 upload onto YouTube. They also collaborated with Kendrick Lamar for The Heart Part 5, which raked in over 35 million views since being uploaded in May.
When it comes to reviving the Donald Trump movie, the minds behind South Park are unsure. Stone hinted by mentioning that “he [Trump] could be running again.” So, maybe there is hope that fans will get the film one day, or if something else inspires them to make it, that would fit their criteria for timeliness.
Season 26 of their classic cartoon is greenlit but has no date when it will return.