A couple of weeks ago it was announced that Flight Of The Conchords co-creator, James Bobin, was officially attached to direct the upcoming new Muppet movie, which Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller have been writing. While relatively little was known about the movie, now a few more details have slipped out.
Up until now it’s been known as The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, which was always a joke title, but actually seemed pretty cool to me. However The Playlist knows someone who’s seen the script and they say the film is now going by the name, The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time, which is certainly a bolder claim that the original title.
According to The Playlist, the plot “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.”
The namesless script reviewers adds, “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.”
It sounds like the script is well on its way, and with a director only just attached, there’s probably still more work to do before it goes in front of the camera. However it is nice that Disney is doing something different with the Muppets, as since they’ve bought them, the characters have largely been confined to updates of classic stories and Youtube viral vids. Taking them back to their roots is a smart move.