Good news for those of us who continue to be big fans of Jim Henson’s Muppets, even though the property has been woefully absent from the theatrical film landscape since 1999s Muppets From Space.
At the end of last week and into the weekend was D23, Disney’s expo for Disney fans where the company makes Comic Con equivalent announcements about upcoming goings-on in film and at the Disney theme parks.
Last we heard about a new Muppet movie, Jason Segel (Knocked Up, I Love You Man) had taken his puppeteer storyline from Forgetting Sarah Marshall and found a way to spin that into a writing gig on the new Muppet film. The best part for old Muppets fans is the news that Segel’s Muppet movie wouldn’t feature the Muppets re-telling a classic story (Muppet Treasure Island) or in a nonsensical setting (Muppets From Space), but would be based on the classic Muppet formula: putting on a show. “[It] is going to be incredibly old fashioned,” said Segel, “with the familiar Muppet characters putting on a show to save an old theater. The danger? An evil character wants to tear the place down to get at the oil underneath.”
At Friday’s D23, more details about this Muppet movie were revealed:
Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook officially announced that the upcoming Muppet film (written by Jason Segel) will be titled The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made.
This title references an old title, developed Jim Henson in 1985 but never produced that would have featured Gonzo directing a Hollywood film and quickly blowing the project’s budget.
Slight curveball there are the plots don’t seem to mesh, but it’s being widely reported that this is Jason Segel’s Muppet movie still, even if the title might refer to a plot adapted from previous conceptual material.
As a guy who just checked out The Muppets Take Manhattan streaming instantly on Netflix, I can say I’ve got the itch. The itch for more Muppet.
