South Park co-creator Matt Stone has vowed not to make another picture with partner Trey Parker after collaborating on the Hollywood picture Team America: World Police.
- Team America: World Police
- Production year: 2004
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): 15
- Runtime: 98 mins
- Directors: Trey Parker
- Cast: Kristen Miller, Matt Stone, Trey Parker
The pair previously teamed up on South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the 1999 big screen version of their hit television series.
However the 33-year-old Stone has pledged to stay away from making any further pictures with puppets or Parker after describing Team America, which opens here in January, as the lowest point in his life.
The picture received a drubbing in the US press and grossed approximately $32m (£16.6m) - a paltry return for what many had hoped would become one of the comedy hits of 2004.
"It was the worst time of my entire life - I never want to see a puppet again," Stone told The Sun Online. "It ruined all the serious relationships in my life. You just become a different person, get completely stressed out and don't pay attention to anything else.
"You work 20 hours a day, take sleeping pills to go to bed and drink coffee to stay up. You feel like a piece of s**t, none of your friends like you, your parents don't like you, but you have a movie at the end."
Stone added that while the project was originally conceived as a lighthearted lampooning of Hollywood celebrity and the war on terror, a hectic production schedule and various puppetry problems transformed the experience into high drama.
"I don't know why we thought doing a puppet movie would be fun because it was terrible," he continued. "It was really hard because they can't do anything at all."
On top of unfavourable reviews, the White House declared Team America unpatriotic and Sean Penn was so offended by his puppet's depiction as the head of the fictitious Film Actors Guild (FAG) that he sent the filmmakers an irate letter.
Matt Damon and Samuel L Jackson are among other stars portrayed in the picture.
Whether Stone and Parker will ever work together again in Hollywood is a moot point however, bearing in mind that they pledged to part ways after the South Park picture, which came out in 1999 and went on to make $52m (£26.9m) in the US and $83m (£43m) worldwide.