Warner Bros/Paramount Pictures
Cinematographer Bill Pope has shot some iconic films over his three-decade-plus-long career, including but not limited to, Darkman, Army of Darkness, Clueless, The Matrix (and its two sequels), Spider-Man 2 & 3, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He also served as cinematography on Team America: World Police, which was apparently one of the most difficult jobs he’s ever done.
Bill Pope’s first credit as a cinematographer came on the 1990 film Darkman, which starred Liam Neeson and was directed by Sam Raimi. Pope has since collaborated with Raimi many times throughout his career, as he’s also shot Raimi’s films Army of Darkness, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, and his upcoming movie Send Help.
Another of Raimi’s iconic creative partners is actor Bruce Campbell, who starred in Raimi’s early short films before going on to portray Ash Williams in the Evil Dead franchise. Campbell also famously has cameo roles in Raimi other films, such as the Spider-Man trilogy, Oz the Great and Powerful, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and so on.
This is all to suggest that Campbell likely knows Pope quite well, and can be taken at his word when sharing that Pope once claimed shooting Team America was more difficult that shooting Army of Darkness and The Matrix COMBINED.
The cinematographer, Bill Pope, also shot Army of Darkness and The Matrix. He told me that filming Team America with puppets was harder than both of those movies combined. https://t.co/mxZegO4Koq
— Bruce Campbell (@GroovyBruce) May 7, 2025
Team America: World Police, released in 2004, was written and directed by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and was created as a satire of action films and a criticism of the United States’ foreign policy at the time.
The film follows Team America: World Police, an international counterterrorism force who recruit a Broadway actor to assist in saving the world from Kim Jong Il, who is aided by Islamic terrorists and liberal actors, with the likes of Matt Damon, Tim Robins, Sean Penn, Helen Hunt, Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler, George Clooney, Danny Glover, Ethan Hawke, Martin Sheen, and more being parodied in the film.