Team America: World Police

Five years after ”South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” Trey Parker and Matt Stone are launching their sophomore film effort…involving, uh, marionettes who kick ass and, uh…let Stone explain: ”We wanted to f— up some puppets. The whole idea behind the movie is just f—ing killing puppets.” Thus, the duo has made an R-rated, all-marionette action flick about a group of superagent types that takes satiric jabs at conservatives and liberals (and has already spawned a Drudge Report worrying that it mocks the war on terror).

Along the way, Parker and Stone experienced some tangles: First, Paramount got nervous about financing an R-rated puppet movie…so the directors sacrificed their up-front fees. Then the filmmakers discovered the limitations of their actors (”Puppets can’t do s—,” says Parker), which caused scheduling overruns and budget increases…which forced the two to give up their back-end deal. ”So we’re just total bitches now,” Parker says. But they’ll have the film to show for their pains, right? Concludes Parker: ”If that sucks, then I just f—ed myself harder than anyone.”

WHAT’S AT STAKE Four-word recap: R-rated puppet movie.