Fast on the heels of the very welcome news that James Bobin of Flight of the Conchords has officially signed to direct Disney’s new Muppet movie, now comes early word via the Playlist of what the script looks like, and for Muppets fans (of which I’m certainly one) it mostly seems to be good news.
The movie, once known as The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, is now actually known as The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made, so no matter how tongue-in-cheek that may be, co-writers Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller had better deliver. Here’s what the Playlist’s source had to say about the plot synopsis:
“The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time is about Gary, Mary, and Walter (a man, his girlfriend, and the man’s life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend) getting the old Muppet gang – now retired entertainers known for the same Muppet show we know them from – together to save the TV studio that the original show was shot in. A villain, Tex Richman (nice name, on par with Doc Hopper), bent on drilling for oil underneath the studio, is due to take over the studio in weeks, and the only way to stop him? Putting on a show that draws ten million viewers (see also “Heartbroken: The Conan O’Brien Story”).
Sounds suspiciously and thankfully an awful lot like what the Muppets used to get up to every week on TV when I was a youngun, so that’s all good to me. And what’s even better? How about a video of Beaker doing his obviously unique meeming of Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind”? Hit the jump for that and more details about the new Muppet movie in the works.
As I said before, I appreciate the nod in structure to what made the Muppets so great when I was a kid, even if it does lack originality. The lucky chap who got to read the script and gabbed about it to the Playlist, however, was less impressed. Here’s more of what he or she had to say.
“It’s a solid attempt at recapturing what made The Muppet Show and the first two Muppet movies so great, but The Great Muppet Movie of All Time is no Great Muppet Caper – Caper being to the first Muppets film, what The Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars – but it is a fresh, younger approach. Stoller and Segel have fun with the characters, are aware of what made the Muppet early years so great (winks to the audience, friendly musical numbers, single gag repetition, friendship and togetherness being the answer to everything), and hit the mark 65% of the time. We’re hoping the songs (the majority of which were missing from the script) help elevate the script from a harmless Muppet flick to a more memorable one, but there’s more work to be done first. But what their script lacks (oddly enough, this being a Muppet movie and all) is forward pulse. The Muppet Movie is about a frog’s drive to get to Hollywood and the people he meets along the way and the friendships he makes.”
I’ll buy all that, but just the mention of The Empire Strikes Back really intrigues me, because if this movie works at all, I and certainly many other people will want to see at least a Muppet trilogy from these guys, so I’ll take a capable Muppet movie in the classic vein, with hopes of their own Empire to come. And as far as the songs go, I haven’t heard any of them, but anyone who’s seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall, also written by Segel and Stoller, knows that what they already delivered at the end of that flick with the blissfully silly Dracula puppet musical shows they at least have the right spirit for this.
And if you’re craving Muppet music right away, the world is certainly a better place because the Muppets have their own YouTube channel in it. Their superfun take on “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a big Internet hit earlier this year, and now here’s a brief clip of Beaker attempting to sing Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind.” Enjoy, and let us know whether or not you think the new Muppet movie is “Movin’ Right Along” in the right direction.
First Poster for FAST AND FURIOUS 6
Emily VanCamp in Talks for Lead in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
International Red Band Trailer for SPRING BREAKERS
Mark Millar Talks X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST; Says Sentinels Are a “Big Feature” of This Story
Screenwriter Scott Z. Burns Talks David Fincher’s 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
YES YES YES! I cannot wait!
This sounds awesome, but a quick correction. John Hamburg wrote and directed I Love You, Man. I believe you're talking about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was written by Segal and Stoller and features a puppet-Dracula-Musical-finale.
just fixed that. good catch
Love that Muppet YouTube channel and this seems like good news to me, too.
While we are correcting, however, the quote says:
The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time
And the headline and article call it “The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made” (same ending as the old Cheapest title).
Jim Henson had a “wait and see attitude” and now we ACTUALLY DO have wrong-sounding Muppets.
It is clear that the new writers remember that the best muppet films (you know the 3) were not only fun for kids, but entertaining for adults. I only hope that they spend time with the creative team from the Sesame Workshop aka the Children's Television Workshop. They will need to step into the roll of a child experiencing their muppet movie and remember the messages they took with them from the earlier muppet films. In 1968, Sesame Street founder, Joan Ganz Cooney, assembled a team of producers to “create a program that would spread prolearning values to both viewers and nonviewers (including their parents) that would affect them for many years after they stopped watching it.” The team (including Jim Henson) attended seminars over a summer, led by a Harvard University professor, which gave them a “crash course” in child development, psychology and preschool education.
I think the 3 early muppet films stayed true to the vision of the Children's Television Workshop, and that is what makes them so memorable. The messages were created for kids and the films did indeed affect us for many years after we saw them. I think the new film premise is great, the title is a bit bold (and it doesn't leave the door open for future muppet films to be as “great?”), and I would like to see the scattered muppets in some exciting International locales (exposing young kids to world travel and keeping in mind how International the muppets really are now).
Also hoping that the cameos feel natural and not so forced – truly loved when the famous actors played waiters, department store clerks, roller-skaters in central park- so it still felt like the muppets were the real stars of the film.
Lastly, the song lyrics. I hope again that they team up with the Sesame Workshop to knock out some fantastic songs that are not only catchy, but inspiring and educational. The enigmatic “I'm going to go back there someday” from the muppet movie is my fav. (“There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met…”) Another public broadcasting giant, Mr. Rogers, made an incredible speech to the US Senate to win back millions of dollars for PBS in the face of budget cuts. He won over the Senate chairman by reading the lyrics to one of the songs on his show. Definitely check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q
Sounds completely unnecessary.
Is it just me or does the story for 'The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made' sound a whole lot like the terrible Country Bears movie? I hope they'll prove me wrong, but at this point I'm hoping for a delay and a rewrite.
It should also be remembered that while the director may be new, the people performing the Muppets come from the same troup. (Although I suspect most of the original Muppet performers found on the first movies have now been replaced with new performers as the older ones have retired.) So there's people who know how the Muppets should be and can assure that they'll stay true to that.
And this isn't being made by the CTW; the Muppets the CTW use are a separate group now and have nothing to do with Jim Henson Company Muppets used in the movie version. Jim Henson's Muppets existed before Sesame Street; it was the producers of Sesame Street who asked Henson to use his Muppets.
Is it just me or does the story for 'The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made' sound a whole lot like the terrible Country Bears movie? I hope they'll prove me wrong, but at this point I'm hoping for a delay and a rewrite.
It should also be remembered that while the director may be new, the people performing the Muppets come from the same troup. (Although I suspect most of the original Muppet performers found on the first movies have now been replaced with new performers as the older ones have retired.) So there's people who know how the Muppets should be and can assure that they'll stay true to that.
And this isn't being made by the CTW; the Muppets the CTW use are a separate group now and have nothing to do with Jim Henson Company Muppets used in the movie version. Jim Henson's Muppets existed before Sesame Street; it was the producers of Sesame Street who asked Henson to use his Muppets.
Kickass! Awesome teaser as well.