Could it be that we’ll have two muppet films active in Hollywood soon? Segal and his crew of folks are bringing back the felt with The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made (which Amy Adams may join), but now comes word that the Son of Henson himself, Brian Henson, is involved in developing “a dark and adult story featuring puppets.” The film is called Happytime Murders and has been a Jim Henson Co. project since late 2008- Todd Berger wrote the script that the studio speculatively acquired. It revolves around the serial murders of the puppet cast of a bygone children’s show. In this universe there is a Roger Rabbit-style dynamic of co-existing humans and puppets, though Puppets belong to a lower caste. A puppet detective joins up with his human former-partner from his days on the force to investigate the murders.
Every article I’ve seen has done it’s best to create a “adultish puppet movie” meets “crime film” equation —Heat Vision drops the solid “Avenue Q meets L.A. Confidential” while I also ran across the sillier “Roger Rabbit meets Pulp Fiction“– so I think I’m going to go with “Chinatown Meets The Feebles.”
None of your favorite Muppets have been specifically mentioned as being in the script, but since it is a Henson Co. project, I’m sure cameos could happen. They could even aim for some crossover synergy with The Greatest Muppet Movie and lay the groundwork for a multi-genre, massive Avengers-style Muppet event! We could have a glorious cinematic multi-verse of stretched felt characters by 2015! (Please don’t.)
In any event, the project hopes to start shooting at year’s start in 2011 and I for one hope it gets rolling. The project sound unconventional and fun, so something within the system is no doubt endeavoring to murder the stuffing out of it, but my deepest wishes of good luck are aimed at the production.