Of all the creative types working today, one would imagine that possibly the least likely to threaten to pick up an EGOT (managing to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, a feat managed by only ten people in history) are the gleefully puerile “South Park” and “Team America” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. But somehow, they’re heading in that direction. Already the holder of several Emmys for “South Park,” their widely acclaimed smash-hit Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” picked up a record haul of Tonys earlier in the summer, and the cast recording already looks a virtual lock to win in its category at the Grammys next year.
That leaves only the film award, and the pair have already come away empty-handed from the Kodak Theater once, after the Academy sadly decided they’d rather give Best Original Song in 2000 to Phil Collins‘ dismal “You’ll Be In My Heart” from Disney‘s “Tarzan” than to “Blame Canada,” a song featuring the lyric “And my boy Eric, once had my picture on his shelf/But now when I see him he tells me to fuck myself.” But it looks like they might have another shot at the gold in the next few years.
Parker & Stone spoke to Entertainment Weekly, who confirmed, as long expected, that a big-screen version of “The Book of Mormon” is in the works, with the show’s Broadway producer Scott Rudin (“No Country For Old Men,” “The Social Network“) likely to back the film, and Parker set to direct. Stone commented that “The great thing is, a lot of Broadway teams would have to go team up with a Hollywood producer and bring on a Hollywood director, but Trey’s a director and Scott’s a great producer. We’ve all made movies. So it’s kind of cool, it can stay in the same family.”
However, the film, which like the stage show would follow two Mormon missionaries sent to a Ugandan village, is still a little while off at this point, with Parker telling the site “Hopefully [the show] will have a big run and a big tour and then we can do the movie in several years.” We imagine they might be waiting for their “South Park” workload to calm down a little, as well. Still, good to see that a show that by all accounts is tremendous, is heading onto the silver screen at some point down the line, and that Parker & Stone have a chance at that EGOT yet.