In Development: Henson's Fraggle Rock Movie

[The Count]

Well, Richard's dead, yes. And Gerry "Doc" Parkes and Jerry Nelson are a bit erm, not-so-active performance wise... But Kathy Mullin hasn't died. And I do hope Jerry Nelson would at least be well enough to voice-loop Gobo/Pa Gorg's voices. But I still hold some hope that this movie will come as the Fraggle Five are still alive.

 

[Drtooth]

When this movie gets made, I'm sure we won't have all that many replacements. Sure, Jerry might have to loop dialogue if anything... but the only way I think we'd even see replacements is if there's a conflicting schedule between this film and Muppet projects with Dave Goelz and Steve Whitmire... but then they could easily loop dialogue as well. And If, let's say, Kathy Mullin is still busy with her amazing work overseas (Jim would have been SOOOO proud), I'd say Pam Arciero has done a great job with Leona on BTL... but we can count on Karen Prell... she's ITCHING to be Red Fraggle again. Why, she even performed RED for the big celebrity event thingy.

So if all else fails, and this is purely hypothetical, we'd at the very least see Red.

 

[Jessie]

Letters to the Fraggles

Does anyone know of an address with which to reach the original Fraggle performers?

I grew up on Fraggle Rock and the idea of a movie without Jerry, Steve, Karen, Dave and Kathryn as the Fraggle Five makes me sad. I also think that if the original performers were involved, then they would be able to retain the integrity of Fraggle Rock and be able to keep the script writers in check if they try to go all..."Hannah Montana" on us.

I would love to see this film, but I am wary of how it might turn out. I haven't seen Indiana Jones 4 because I heard it was so bad, or the Harry Potter movies, the new Star Wars movies took something away from the originals...etc. Would hate to see the Fraggles go the same way!

So, anyway, if anyone has ideas for addresses of their agents, etc, it would be helpful. Sometimes all a person needs is someone to tell them in old snail mail style that they are appreciated and wanted.

 

[bazooka_beak]

^ I have no idea but am curious as well about fan mail addresses

 

[Nekoshema]

i agree, snail mail sometimes works better [i myself prefer it, but the postal workers don't seem to ] anyway, we should send letters to them, or a group email or something, i'm sure they know their audience. [people roughly in the re 20's who, when stressed, thinks 'dance your cares away'] sadly some key people are either dead or can't participate. i know they'll try [maybe 20%] but we should write them [every person who screams Gobo, when they want someone to take there hat off... just me?] to write to the people and ask them to try. try to get as close to the original voices as possible, try to get as cloase to Jerry's writting as possible. and if they don't know how, i hope they do what many people don't, and watch the sorce material. i know i'll be at the theatre opening night [might bring my Gobo plushie... does anyone got Mokey and/or Bobber, i love them] as excited as Red. i know it won't be the same, i know i will be a little dissapointed, but i hope it's VERY small.

sorry, long one lol. maybe there's a contact to the project somewhere on the site? maybe they won't read one letter or email, but they might realize how we feel to see a thousand [give or take a few zero's ]

 

[Drtooth]

I grew up on Fraggle Rock and the idea of a movie without Jerry, Steve, Karen, Dave and Kathryn as the Fraggle Five makes me sad. I also think that if the original performers were involved, then they would be able to retain the integrity of Fraggle Rock and be able to keep the script writers in check if they try to go all..."Hannah Montana" on us.

I would love to see this film, but I am wary of how it might turn out. I haven't seen Indiana Jones 4 because I heard it was so bad, or the Harry Potter movies, the new Star Wars movies took something away from the originals...etc. Would hate to see the Fraggles go the same way!

When and whatever circumstances come together and the film DOES get made (that's pretty hopeful, but not too sounding) There is NO DOUBT that we'd see the puppeteers leap onto it. Karen is always looking for an excuse to play Red (she actually performed her live for Comic-Con and the Dr. Doozer event)... any problems would lie on the availability of Steve Whitmire and Dave Golez in the event that it bumps heads with any Muppet Show related project. Jerry would ad LEAST loop dialogue (he's not as young as he used to be, and he really can't puppeteer anymore)... I'm sure Katheryn Mullen would love to play Mokey again (she's doing absolutely beautiful charity work Jim would be proud of). The only thing is Richard Hunt passed on years ago, but David Rudman has taken over most of his roles just wonderfully.

As for the other things I'm gonna address.... Corey Edwards (the screenwriter of the movie) has stated passionately for the past couple years that it will be as true as it can be to the original show, only tweaking slight things to make it fit in a movie. No Shrek pop culture references... no tween pop... he's struggling to make us all happy.

Secondly, I'm SO SICK of people saying "New Stuff doesn't hold up to the old stuff." That's nostalgic bias. For me, the reason the new Star Wars films don't hold up is because in between 1977 and 2005, Lucas became a cranky old fussbudget that thought CGI is THE end all be all, fooling his younger self into thinking it really wanted that. Indiana Jones 4, same thing... Spielberg is an old fussbudget. But I really think when you get bright, new blood into a project... one with vision and respect for the original, you'll have gold. Why, The last 2 Batman movies blew even the Tim Burton ones out of the water for me. I'm sure that very little has changed in the Fraggle Holes... they barely know about "Silly Creatures" so a Fraggle popping out of a hole could experience the same feeling if they popped out in 1957, 1985, 2039... Their culture hasn't changed the way ours has, and anything will be new to them.

 

[Yorick]

Secondly, I'm SO SICK of people saying "New Stuff doesn't hold up to the old stuff." That's nostalgic bias.

I admit I'm probably guilty of that bias at times, myself. And I'm glad to hear that about the screenwriter, and good for him! Also, I like your optimism. But if things get out of his control, we may be in trouble, ya know? So I just hope "the machine" doesn't do what it normally does. I think we can all agree that while there are exceptions to the "new vs old" rule, many many times fans of all different forms of entertainment can be let down, due to the way "making a product marketable" works.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if his dedication to not making just another kid's film Alvin and the Chipmunks wanna be is one of the big problems the movie's facing. Even when things were smoother, he had to put so many rewrites in the script. At one point, someone told him to put "robot sidekick" into the script, and he firmly planted his foot in the ground and said "No Dice!"

Heck, a lesser screenwriter would have shoved "sassy robot sidekick voiced by African American comedian who makes 1000 pop culture references per minute" into the script first thing. This is a very laborious process, and I really have some hope the hurdles are starting to clear up (after all, Henson's not to blame here, Weinstine's going through so many financial problems they need a THIRD partner to get this off the ground). Once we clear that up, we're bound to see something. But it really does sound like the project is in trouble just for that reason.

 

[Collgoff]

Cantus on the other hand, I'm not so sure. Possibly Steve Whitmire could do Cantus? Eh, not sure.

Can Steve do that? I mean he did one of the other minstrels most of Cantus's comings.

 

[The Count]

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind...
Posted by Drtooth:
"If we're talking about net etiquette, there are 2 other things considered impolite:

1) Dredging up old threads with the same information from other threads that hasn't been updated in a year or more

2) posting anything that leads to misleading information should be avoided as that's a red flag that'll confuse new and older members alike."

Posted by frogboy4:
"1: IGNORE IT - sometimes taking a pause and ignoring the member is the best way to go rather than getting heated in the moment. There's also a "member ignore"
feature if things go that far. It's best not to feed an angry beast.

2: PRIVATE MESSAGE THE OFFENDING MEMBER - sometimes PMing the offending member and gently expressing your concerns in private or to make a truce to avoid
one another can work wonders. Trust me on this.

3: REPORT TO A MODERATOR - let the mods to their jobs. Yup, they're usually busy and it shouldn't always be the knee-jerk/go-to, but that's what they're
here for. Conflict resolution.

4: THINK BEFORE YOU POST - wait an hour before posting something you think could be taken the wrong way and read it again before posting it. Sometimes you'll
decide to toss the whole response.

5: CONSIDER THAT IT ALL COULD BE A MISUNDERSTANDING - give others the benefit of a doubt instead of hopping right in. It's hard to decipher context and
desired inflection on a stark typed page. Come from a perspective of kindness."

Given the incident in the thread about the Muppets poster and standee, and the one in this thread, if a person sparks a reaction within you that your post will be either misconstrewed as rude towards them when trying to explain or just lead to a fight, the best thing to do is contact a moderator before it gets to the point that there are multiple posts just feeding the fight that need removal.

Thank you and hope this helps people remember to keep level heads concerning their fandom and/or behavior towards each other on this or any other forum.