TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE’S DEEP FAKE COMPANY DEEP VOODOO ANNOUNCES $20 MILLION INVESTMENT
LOS ANGELES, CA, December 20, 2022 — Deep Voodoo, the artificial intelligence entertainment startup formed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, announced today that it has secured a $20 million investment led by Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The invested capital will accelerate Deep Voodoo’s development of its leading deep fake technology, cost-effective visual effects services, and original synthetic media projects.
CAA and NEA’s Connect Ventures leads the investment
LOS ANGELES, CA, December 20, 2022 — Deep Voodoo, the artificial intelligence entertainment startup formed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, announced today that it has secured a $20 million investment led by Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The invested capital will accelerate Deep Voodoo’s development of its leading deep fake technology, cost-effective visual effects services, and original synthetic media projects.
Connect Ventures’ investment represents the first external capital raised by Deep Voodoo. Parker and Stone’s independent entertainment company, Park County, entirely funded Deep Voodoo’s research and development prior to this investment round.
“We stumbled upon this amazing technology and ended up recruiting the best deepfake artists in the world,” said Matt Stone. “We are psyched to share their brilliance with the Hollywood creative community.”
“Deep Voodoo has established itself as a leading synthetic media technology platform that has already impacted traditional entertainment. Deep Voodoo uses artificial intelligence to support productions in innovative ways that are faster and more cost-effective than traditional VFX technology,” said Michael Blank of Connect Ventures. “Connect Ventures is thrilled to lead the investment in Deep Voodoo, providing unique access to CAA and NEA’s resources and relationships.”
Deep Voodoo began building the world’s leading proprietary deep fake technology in early 2020. Parker and Stone assembled a team of the world’s leading deep fake artists for a feature film they had developed. When the film was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they quickly pivoted to building the best-in-class deep fake tools in the industry today.
With Connect Ventures’ investment, Deep Voodoo has begun offering its unrivaled face-swapping visual effects to artists, producers, and creators around the world.
For media inquiries, please contact press@deepvoodoo.com.
ABOUT PARK COUNTY
Park County is an independent entertainment company established by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in 2012. In addition to South Park and The Book of Mormon, it produces independent films, founded Deep Voodoo, and recently acquired the iconic Casa Bonita restaurant, amongst other endeavors.
For Park County media inquiries, please contact Aileen Budow at aileenbudow@gmail.com.
ABOUT CONNECT VENTURES
Connect Ventures is an investment partnership between leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Launched in 2020 to accelerate the growth of early-stage consumer-focused businesses, Connect Ventures draws on CAA’s resources, relationships, and expertise spanning the global entertainment and sports landscape and the deep domain and company building expertise of NEA’s world-class technology practice. The partnership’s investments include Spire Animation, FightCamp, Blacktag, Unless, OpenSea, Pair Eyewear, Candy Digital, Jomboy Media, Tally Labs, and Mojito, among others.
For Connect Ventures media inquiries, please contact Beth McClinton at beth.mcclinton@caa.com
KENDRICK LAMAR’S ‘THE HEART PART 5’ VIDEO KICKS OFF PARTNERSHIP WITH ‘SOUTH PARK’ CREATORS TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE
By Jem Aswad for Variety
It took a village to create Kendrick Lamar’s mind-melting new video for his song “The Heart Part 5,” which on the surface is just him performing in front of a red backdrop until you realize that his face deepfakes into those of OJ Simpson, Jussie Smollett, Nipsey Hussle, Kobe Bryant and Kanye West
By Jem Aswad for Variety May 9, 2022
It took a village to create Kendrick Lamar’s mind-melting new video for his song “The Heart Part 5,” which on the surface is just him performing in front of a red backdrop until you realize that his face deepfakes into those of OJ Simpson, Jussie Smollett, Nipsey Hussle, Kobe Bryant and Kanye West (who, ironically, himself dropped a video the same day using deepfake technology).
While the video was directed and executive produced by Lamar and longtime creative collaborator Dave Free and features a host of creative collaborators (listed below), the deep fake is credited to Deep Voodoo, a studio launched by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to specialize in the technology — and the “The Heart Part 5” video appears to be the first fruit of a partnership between Lamar’s PGLang company and the “South Park” founders’ Park County banner to produce a new feature film for Paramount Pictures. (Lamar, Parker, Stone and reps for PG Lang and Deep Voodoo all declined Variety’s requests for an interview about the video.)
Read the Full Article at Variety
THE ‘SOUTH PARK’ GUYS BREAK DOWN THEIR VIRAL DEEPFAKE VIDEO
By Dave Itzkoff for The New York Times
In a New York Times Interview, Trey Parker, Matt Stone and their collaborator Peter Serafinowicz discuss the back story of “Sassy Justice,” their deepfake video that used images of President Trump and others.
In a New York Times Interview, Trey Parker, Matt Stone and their collaborator Peter Serafinowicz discuss the back story of “Sassy Justice,” their deepfake video that used images of President Trump and others.
Like so many other things on the internet, the viral video “Sassy Justice” seemed too good to be true when it started showing up on television and then on the internet earlier this week. Presented as a local news broadcast from a station in Cheyenne, Wyo., the video is hosted by a reporter named Fred Sassy, who appears to be a dead ringer for President Trump — if he wore a cheap suit and a white wig and spoke with a campy accent.
See the full article in the New York Times