Muppets Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you are even half as obsessed with the Muppets as I am, then you probably couldn't be happier that Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller are bringing them back to the big screen. Last year, Segel had confirmed that they were half way through a script, and now a source at AICN by the name of The Great Gonzo claims to have gotten a look at the finished product. The film has the working title of The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time, and there is a little good and bad in the early review, so let's start with the good news first, shall we?

According to AICN's source, the heart of the story is pretty close to what Segel told us back in 2008. The story centers on Kermit having to reunite the old gang to save the studio, and hearkens back to the glory days of Muppet movies with the classic characters front and center. But, it's not all sunshine and roses from AICN's scooper, since they also claim that there are some flat sections to the story and some of the references are just plain outdated. The script review also goes into some pretty specific descriptions of the various cameos and is definitely spoiler heavy, so if you want to avoid ruining the fun, I suggest you tread carefully.

I grew up wanting to live in that old theater with Kermit and company, and my Animal drum set was my favorite childhood toy -- I was absolutely addicted. But I grew up, and while the later Muppet films were always good for a laugh, it just wasn't the same. Thankfully, now that the franchise is in the hands of a true believer like Segel, I'm pretty sure we have nothing to worry about - I mean, as long as Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem remain intact, I'll be good.

Muppet fever is in the air these days. Jason Segel got The Jim Henson Co. to help him whip up those awesome puppets for Forgetting Sarah Marshall. That led to the funny man getting the honor of making a new Muppet movie. And now we're getting more Hensonesque film awesomeness. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the company is going to the adult world of film noir.

Oh yes -- they've whipped up a murder mystery called The Happytime Murders (written by Todd Berger from a story created with Dee Austin Robertson), and Brian Henson will direct it. In this tale of adult puppet goodness, there's an alternate world where puppets and humans co-exist -- but not exactly peacefully -- the puppets are considered second-class citizens. The murder comes in when "the puppet cast of an '80s children's TV show called 'The Happytime Gang' begins to get murdered one by one, [and] a disgraced puppet LAPD detective turned private eye -- with a drinking problem, no less -- takes on the case."

Awesome. I can only hope there some Nick and Nora noir swank to this whole deal, but I do wonder: HOW adult will they get? The piece references Avenue Q, which is a big ol' raunch fest, but that might be too racy? However adult it gets, this sounds good. Do you agree?

We've been posting these videos of the day for quite some time now, and I seriously believe this video above is very close to being one of my favorites. And it's timely, too! Jason Segel is working on a new live-action Muppets movie that's got all sorts of fans excited. PLUS, Woody Allen's new film Vicky Cristina Barcelona premiered in Cannes earlier this month to some great buzz -- especially from our own Kim Voynar. I shouldn't have to explain much about the video above, because, honestly, if you've never watched Manhattan, we've got other issues to work through first. (And is it just me, or are the Muppets slightly more enjoyable when Woody Allen is writing the dialogue?)

Do let us know what you think of the video in the comments below.

[via Hollywood Elsewhere]

Oh man -- I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall again over the weekend (I first saw it at SXSW back in March) and the laughs held up beautifully; it really is a comic treasure, even if it does suffer a bit from the typical Apatow bloat. So this is great news for me: director Nicholas Stoller is reteaming with Judd Apatow for Get Him to the Greek, a comedy starring Sarah Marshall's Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. Hill will play a young insurance adjuster assigned to get a wild rock star (Brand) from London to LA's Greek Theater for a gig. I don't dispense headline exclamation points willy-nilly, so you know I'm excited.

The idea was apparently hatched at a Sarah Marshall table read, where Hill and Brand exhibited a surprising chemistry. They only had a few scenes together in that film, and since I thought Hill's character was generally a weak spot, I spent most of those scenes being mildly annoyed. But I've seen Superbad, so I know that Hill has the funny, and Brand, whom I had never heard of before Sarah Marshall, has some of the movie's biggest laughs. So: more, please.

Stoller will write Get Him to the Greek in addition to getting back in the director's chair. He has some other projects in the works, including Five Year Engagement, which he will direct and co-write with Jason Segel. He's also working with Segel on his planned Muppet movie. And he co-wrote the screenplay for Jim Carrey's Yes Man, due in December. Busy guy; lucky, too.

Forget Sarah Marshall, hello Miss Piggy!

According to Variety, Jason Segel and Nick Stoller, the writer-director duo behind the upcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall, have just inked a deal with Disney to create a new Muppet film. They'll collaborate on the script, and Stoller will direct.

Apparently, this partnership with Disney came about entirely due to Marshall. In the film, Segel's character writes a Dracula musical performed by puppets. The puppets were custom made by the Henson geniuses. Segel took the chance to pitch a concept to the Muppets, and the rest will be history.

I think this is fantastic news. It's been far too long since we had a Muppet movie, which is quite sad when I remember what childhood staples they were. And remember how adult and edgy they were in their heyday? If anyone can bring that back to the Muppets, it is Segel and Stoller. It will be really interesting to see what they might get away with -- and what cameos will pop up in the movie. I hope this brings in a Muppet Renaissance!

Did you know that when he was getting started, George Carlin wanted to be Danny Kaye? In an interview with CNN, Carlin said: "Danny Kaye was my childhood dream when I was 10, 11. I kind of looked at that and thought, 'Gee, I can do that. ... He makes funny faces, he talks in funny accents and he can do very, very intricate vocal pieces.'" Well, he definitely didn't turn out like Kaye, but I must give him props for taste.

I adore Danny Kaye. I really wanted this rewind to be from The Cosby Show, when the comedian and actor had appeared as the dentist (in his last role) -- but it's not floating in the sea of YouTube. However, there's something from around the same time that's an excellent alternative. Above, you've got Danny Kaye as the Swedish Chef's uncle. I really miss that man... Borga, borga, borga!

While I'm sure many people are itching for more big-screen muppets, it looks like we're finally getting a peek behind the puppet superstars. Empire reports that a film company called Empire Film Group (no relation) is going to make a biopic about the legendary puppet icon -- Jim Henson. A screenplay has been written by Robert D. Slane (Come Away Home), and they hope to get a big-name director "like Penny Marshall." She could definitely make a decent film, and has been directorially free since 2001's Riding in Cars with Boys. However, I'm sort of with Empire with the idea of making it mirthfully quirky with someone like Michel Gondry.

We know all about Jim's accomplishments -- Sesame Street, The Muppets, The Dark Crystal... But what of his life? As great as his furry faux creatures are, there has to be a story. Skimming Wikipedia... The early days look pretty angst-free, with talk of his early accomplishments, and, get this, a BA in home ec in 1960. From there, you know what happens. While there were some struggles along the way, his success continued to grow into what we know today. So really, this won't be some traumatic sort of biopic drama, but maybe that's okay. Henson was all about the funny anyway, so why not have a light, fun story of his life?

The Muppet Christmas Carol may be to the Muppets what Room Service is to the Marx Brothers. Neither is particularly good, especially in relation to the rest of the Muppet or Marx Brothers movies, but they can still be enjoyed immensely if you are a big enough fan of the Muppets or the Marxes. The films share two significant factors that aided in their surprisingly low quality. Each comedy "troupe" (if you can accept Kermit & Co. as a troupe) had recently suffered from a terrible disruption in their respective commands. Muppet Christmas Carol was the first Muppet movie produced after the death of Jim Henson, while Room Service was the first Marx Bros. movie to be filmed (fully) after the death of producer Irving Thalberg (though, of course, Thalberg was not the Bros.' creator like Henson was the Muppets'). And, most importantly, each is notable for having not been written for their "troupe"; instead the "troupe" was rather ill fittingly dropped into pre-existing stories.

In the case of The Muppet Christmas Carol, that pre-existing story is of course Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (umm, commonly known as simply A Christmas Carol). Unlike previous Muppet vehicles, such as The Muppet Movie and The Muppets Take Manhattan, this one focuses on a main character not played by a Muppet. Instead, Michael Caine portrays the lead, Ebenezer Scrooge, while the old favorites play minor supporting characters from Bob Crachit (Kermit) and his wife (Miss Piggy) to the narrators, Charles Dickens (Gonzo) and Rizzo the Rat (himself). Strangely the Christmas spirits aren't played by any of the star Muppets. In fact, only one of them is even technically a puppet: the Ghost of Christmas Present, which is a burly, redheaded body puppet (has an actor inside) with a Scottish accent.

I was not a film critic as a child, and there were a lot of movies I liked then that wouldn't appeal to me today: Benji, Candleshoe, The Love Bug and all those Tim Conway/Don Knotts movies leap to mind. And I didn't like some movies the first time I saw them. I was disappointed that Freaky Friday was not like the book (the remake is better), and I've always felt Gene Wilder was a little creepy both in The Little Prince and -- don't kill me -- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. There are a number of movies I can't enjoy anymore because I am appalled by the gender or racial stereotypes. And some are too saccharine for words. In fact, there are a number of childhood favorites that I think it's best for me not to see again at all, because I prefer to remember them fondly without the reality of a contemporary viewing to shatter my illusions.

However, it's a wonderful feeling to revisit a childhood favorite and discover that the movie is still fun to watch. I'd much rather tell you about the films I loved as a child or pre-teen that I still watch and enjoy today, than dwell on the ones that don't hold up very well. Compiling this list has caused me to draw up a list of movies that I haven't seen since I was younger that I'd like to see again soon -- Yellow Submarine, which I enjoyed as early as age six, isn't on the list because I haven't seen the complete movie since college, but I think I'd still like it. And I've been tempted lately to check out those early Kurt Russell films from Disney like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. The seven movies on the following list are all films I liked when I was young and still like now -- "young" meaning all the way up into my early teenage years, because I was able to watch better movies I am more likely to remember and that appeal to me now.

People celebrate the holiday season in many different ways, for many different reasons. If you, like me, choose the remembrance of the birth of Christ as the primary reason to observe Dec. 25th, or if you are simply interested in hearing from that perspective, you might find this interesting. Of course, you might not. By the time you're done reading, you may want to beat me upside the head, because frankly, I'm not sure there's a lot of coherence to my thought process here. Nonetheless, let's give it a go. Today, on the day many of us choose to recall the birth of our Savior, the 12 Days of Cinematicalmas Presents: Christmas Movies To Remember Jesus By.

You know, readers, this is one bugger of an article to write, for two reasons. First, because I don't typically discuss my faith in this forum -- it just doesn't come up much when you spend most of your time writing about comic books -- and second, because upon examination I realize that most of the Christmas specials I watch when I really want to feel the "spirit of the season" are not directly about Jesus. Typically, when I want that story, I go straight to the Book. Movies aren't ever as good as the books anyway, right?

So initially, I sat in front of a blank notepad (the computer notepad, of course, not that paper stuff that I hear some people still use) and thought "I'm not going to be able to write this article, because the movies I want to write about really hold no unique appeal to Christians. They're loved by really just about everyone." I was all set to jet off an apologetic email to the editorial team here at Cine, ex planing why I couldn't write what seems like it should be a very easy article on a subject I'm intimately involved with. But before the email was composed, a weird thought hit me. I examined it, and sure enough, it was accurate. Keep in mind, I'm just your average layperson, and am in no way specially qualified to make observations about scripture or people's relationship with their God, so this is just a simple observation from a humble follower. ...