With over 300 episodes to date, the critically-acclaimed animated show South Park may be getting a movie for the first time since 1999. The show, created in 1997 by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, follows the misadventure of a group of bad-mouthed grade-schoolers in their dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado.
Since it’s creation, the hit TV show has only had one movie-length feature tied to its characters. However, an anonymous source within the industry informed CNBC that ViacomCBS has hired Grant Gish to work with co-creators Parker and Stone on new movies and specials for the show.
Grant Gish currently works at Disney’s Marvel Studios as vice-president of comedy and animation. Gish is set to begin at ViacomCBS as early as 31 August as vice-president of adult animation in the network’s Entertainment and Youth Group.
Gish shared his thoughts on joining the team of such a successful show:
“An animation audience is looking for something unique. That’s what The Simpsons and South Park have famously done. So I want to try a little bit of everything, even though a lot of it will be targeted at the tried and true with brands people know.”
Grant Gish; LAD Bible, https://www.ladbible.com/news/tv-and-film-new-south-park-movies-could-be-in-the-works-20200806
Co-creators Parker and Stone will continue to produce more episodes in the meantime. However, due to a $500 million licensing deal with the HBO network before Viacom’s merge with CBS, any possibility of these movies and special features being available on ViacomCBS’s expanding streaming services will have to wait until the licensing deal expires.
