Times are tough for the Muppets. This summer Kermit the Frog had to be upstaged by another guy who admits that it’s not easy being green – The Incredible Hulk. Miss Piggy had to grit her teeth while Sarah Jessica Parker stole her wardrobe and flaunted it in Sex and the City. And don’t even get me started on Fozie.
But times they are a changin’. With three different Jim Henson projects in the works, including one that’s not suitable for children!
Things started looking up for the Muppets the moment Jason Segel and co-writer Nicolas Stoller had a puppet act in this spring’s hit comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Now both Segel and Stoller are currently working on a Muppet film. There’s also a Fraggle Rock film is in development.
But now comes word that the Muppets will be part of a comedic film noir murder mystery entitled The Happytime Murders.
The film will fall under Jim Henson’s “Alternative” banner, a division that develops projects not intended for children. Brian Henson is on board to direct.
The story takes place in a world where humans and puppets co-exist, with the puppets viewed as second-class citizens. When the puppet cast of an ’80s children’s TV show called “The Happytime Gang” begins to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet — with a drinking problem, no less — takes on the case.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Happytime” will have an absurdist and comedic quality to it, comparable to Broadway’s “Avenue Q,” and will take cues from such movies as “L.A. Confidential” and “Pulp Fiction.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
