jim henson company Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Either writer/director/producer/caterer Guillermo del Toro came across a gap in his schedule for the next five decades, he's allergic to rest, or he's afraid that Luc Besson might beat him to it, but the man has decide to act as executive producer on a stop-motion version of Pinocchio that he's developing with the Jim Henson Company.

Mind you, this is already in addition to his coming duties on The Hobbit, Frankenstein, Drood, next week's Rosenberg bar mitzvah over in Glendale, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and a couple of other projects as well (with any luck, a third Hellboy film is among them).

According to Variety, del Toro is currently working on the screenplay with Gris Grimly, whose strikingly illustrated children's books I've only very recently been introduced to, and Grimly will then co-direct with Adam Parrish King, he of much sound editing background (which really ought to be just as convincing as the animation, no?). Tentatively speaking, del Toro's Pinocchio will be out by 2011.

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?

I don't think I could ever articulate what it is about Labyrinth that's so wonderful, but it's safe to say that I honestly have never met anyone who saw it and didn't love it. (Those of you who think puppets are stupid need to stay away.) The songs are outrageously catchy (I've had Dance, Magic, Dance in my head since I first read this story Friday morning, dammit), the characters -- human and otherwise -- are uniformly winning and it's got both David Bowie AND Jennifer Connelly (before she got her boobs, boys) -- what's not to love? While most of us have to make do with watching it on our televisions, those of you in LA have a special treat heading your way: On July 20 at 8pm, the movie will be screened at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. But wait, there's more! In addition to seeing the magic on the big screen, you'll also get to witness a "post-screening conversation featuring the creative team behind Labyrinth, including [Brian] Henson, who is the voice of Hoggle and co-CEO of the Jim Henson Company." Sigh. Well, at the very least someone who gets to go better send us a report about how great it is. Please?

I don't know if you are the sort of person who reads comic books and/or manga, but if you aren't, you might want too change very soon or you're going to miss out on some serious action from Henson Company in the coming months. In July, the manga company TokyoPop will be rolling out Return to Labyrinth, a manga story which follows the life of the child Toby (cruelly stolen by David Bowie in his infancy), who is still being secretly watched and guarded by the minions of the Goblin King who have been tasked with keeping him safe until the time comes for him to return to King Jareth's side and rule. Also rolling out in early 2007 will be a Legends of the Dark Crystal manga, but no story details have been released for that title at this time.

If you don't read manga but are thinking this may be a good time to start, you should consider purchasing The Jim Henson Fantasy Collection, which is coming to DVD in early September. Not only will you get several awesome DVDs (including the recent MirrorMask), but you'll also snag yourself previews of both previously-mentioned manga stories. I'm curious as to what role (if any) these stories will play in the rumored sequels to their respective films. Regardless, I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to obtain new Labyrinth tales in any form.