South Park’s Trey Parker & Matt Stone Were “Never As Good” In Live-Action As Their Underrated 1998 Comedy, Recalls Director

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Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, haven’t directed many live-action projects, but one director believes they were at the peak of their abilities while working on his film.

Directed by David Zucker, who also made The Naked Gun, BASEketball features Trey Stone and Robert Parker as Coop and Remer. They unexpectedly become famous when they invent a new sport – a wacky combination of baseball and basketball. After the team owners die, Coop gets a chance to own the Milwaukee Beers, but only if he can lead them to a championship – something no team has done in the five years since the sport began.

To celebrate David Zucker’s appearance at the Netflix is a Joke festival, where he’ll be showing and discussing The Naked Gun, ScreenRant‘s Grant Hermanns spoke with him about his film BASEketball. Zucker explained how the movie came to be, starting as a TV pilot for Universal with Chris Rock as the star. Despite being filmed, the studio never ordered a full series.

Acknowledging that making any of his movies is incredibly difficult from start to finish, and pointing out that if it were easy, everyone would be doing it, Zucker explained that a lot of different pieces need to come together to actually get a film made. He remembers having a deal at Universal with his brother, Jerry, and initially envisioning Chris Farley in a starring role, but Farley’s untimely death in 1997 forced him to rethink his plans.

Because Stone and Parker became the main actors, the team needed to revise the script. This was a unique chance for everyone involved, as it was their first year working on South Park – they’d agreed to do the movie as a backup plan if the show wasn’t renewed. Zucker also mentioned that Stone and Parker ultimately wrote about a third of the 1998 comedy.

I directed the movie completely, but I was lucky to work with such talented actors. They’d been in films before, but I honestly think their performance in BASEketball was their best. They were just perfect for the roles.

Zucker explained that Stone and Parker’s work on the film was “a unique blend” of their humor and that of Z-A-Z. He also mentioned he’s considering filming an alternate ending for BASEketball with Stone and Parker, as he feels the movie would benefit from just one more scene to complete it.

David Zucker has an idea for a new ending to the movie BASEketball, potentially bringing back the original cast. He’s hoping to pitch this to Universal – something that hasn’t been done before with such a long gap between films. He wants to reach out to Parker and Stone about it, but hasn’t yet. Zucker plans to work on his current project, Star of Malta, first, and then pursue the new ending once that’s complete.

Featuring familiar faces like Dian Bachar, Yasmine Bleeth from Baywatch, the late Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine, and Robert Vaughn of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., BASEketball is one of the few movies made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The duo first worked together on the Western comedy Cannibal! The Musical and later achieved cult status with the satirical comedy Orgazmo shortly before creating South Park, which also got its own movie in 1999.

After finding success with their animated comedy series, Trey Parker and Matt Stone didn’t make another film until 2004’s Team America: World Police, a satirical take on shows like Thunderbirds and action movies in general. While the film was well-received by critics and did reasonably well in theaters, the challenging production process made them reluctant to create more live-action films for many years. That is, until Parker’s upcoming movie, Whitney Springs, which is being produced by Kendrick Lamar.

Though creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had already found success with South Park, their film BASEketball often gets overlooked. When it was released, critics were divided, and the movie didn’t perform well at the box office, earning only $7 million despite costing $25 million to make. Over time, BASEketball gained a devoted following, becoming a cult classic like their earlier films Cannibal! and Orgazmo. The duo even jokingly referenced the film’s initial poor reception in several episodes of South Park.

If Jerry Zucker actually followed through on his hint of working with Trey Parker and Matt Stone on a new ending for BASEketball, it would be quite unexpected. Parker and Stone have largely stopped appearing in live-action roles, and Zucker hasn’t directed a movie in nearly two decades – he’s currently preparing to direct Star of Malta. Considering the original BASEketball film wasn’t financially successful, Universal Pictures might be hesitant to finance another project like it.

Another key reason why a sequel hasn’t happened is that the original BASEketball film had a pretty satisfying ending. The team of Coop, Remer, and the Beers overcame a large point difference to win the Denslow Cup, Coop and Bleeth’s character Jenna got back together, and Remer unexpectedly started dating Yvette, played by Jenna McCarthy.

If Zucker’s concept takes place right after the original BASEketball movie, it could explore how Coop’s official ownership of the Beers has impacted him and the team. It could also show the family life he and Remer have created with their partners, offering a satisfying conclusion to the beloved film and potentially revitalizing it for its 30th anniversary.

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2026-04-30 00:42