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dwmckim
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411mania has an interview with Brian Henson. The main focus is on Farscape and the Complete Series dvds but there's a lot of other great stuff covered including the most indepth comments he's made regarding the various company hopping the Muppets went through last decade.
The entire interview is at http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/127167/411mania-Interviews:--Brian-Henson.htm - it goes through a lot of territory but here's the interesting most important parts:
Jeffrey Harris: Some people have been very critical of you and the way you've run the Jim Henson Company. People have said about Brian Henson that for you, this is just a business and not your passion. But seeing the fantastic work you've done on things like Farscape, I don't know how people can say. Does that ever bother you?
Brian Henson: I think the biggest criticism of me is that I did sell the company to EMTV. That I did buy the company back and shrink it, and that I sold the Muppets . . . First was, I led the company to be sold in 2000 and I think that was shocking to people, why would the Henson family sell the Henson company? And they just don't understand the situation at that time. We were in an environment in the industry and in America where by television production was being done by the TV channels because the TV channels were now being allowed to own their programming. And if they were going to buy programming that they hadn't produced, it would be from only small companies that they would think are not very competitive. So we were literally in a market where we were shut out of the industry, shut out of television. And that was going to ruin the company. So at that point we needed to merge the Jim Henson company with a bigger entity that owned TV channels. That was the reason that I did that.
It's perfectly understandable that some of the public would go, what did he do? He sold the company. It never mattered to him in the first place. That's their feeling. It's not true at all. Everything I did was to try and assure the longterm success of the company. Then, when the company we sold to failed very quickly, EMTV, I led the initiative to buy the company back and I think at that point all the fans were saying, oh I guess wasn't the bad guy that we thought he was. I guess he is the same guy that kept the Muppets alive, made Muppet Christmas Carol, made Muppet Treasure Island, and gosh I got him wrong, thank goodness and we're all so excited that the Henson family has bought back the Jim Henson Company. Then, when I led to initiative to sell the controlling interest of the Muppets to Disney, everybody was shocked again and just said oh I guess he was the bad guy that I thought he was.
That's really the course of the negative feelings about me, and I totally understand people's feelings. People don't know the inner workings of a company and why decisions are made. My dad always wanted the Muppets to be in Disney World. He always thought that was the way the Muppets should live on. And so selling the Muppets was a way of ensuring the future success of the Muppets. Now I do think that Disney has gone a little slowly in the 5 years that they have had the Muppets. And I certainly appreciate people's concerns, well what's -- where's the Disney production engine making Muppets? And I do honestly believe they will come around. We will start seeing a lot more Muppet production and it will be good and Disney are careful about their characters. So I think when you hear people saying that I've been criticized as it's just a business, it's so not true. I mean on a deal by deal basis, I've always put creative first. I've always put quality first. And obviously, I commit 100% creatively to anything that I get involved with but some of those bigger business decisions are very complex, the reasons why they're done. And every decision was to ensure longevity for the Henson Company and the Henson name and to ensure the creative quality. And I think people look at the roller coaster the Muppets have been on: the Muppets went over to EMTV, then the Muppets came back to Henson, then the Muppets went over to Disney and they think that oh that's just a bunch of horrible corporate business moves. And they don't understand why we were doing what we were doing, but I promise you every move that we made was to ensure the careful handling of the future of the Muppets and to place them in the right place. And I could be wrong, fans could be right, but I still stand by what we did.
--------------------------
On the new Muppet movie (note the last part i put in emphasis):
Jeffrey Harris: I remember reading that Jason Segel was writing a new Muppet movie for Disney. Is that still in the works?
Brian Henson: Well again now you're with Disney so you really do need to talk to Disney about that. As far as I know -- and I know about as much about it as everybody else -- but I do know that there is a re-energized effort to get the Muppets into the movie theatres with a movie. And I'm very glad because initially when the Muppets first moved over to Disney, there was a lot of talk where the should the Muppets go? What kind of production? Should they do a little web series? Should they do TV series? And I was always a firm believer that they should aim high and do a proper, great Disney movie with the big Disney marketing plan and do a great Muppet movie. So, I'm actually pleased that even though they've taken a long time, that clearly is -- they've now made the decision that that's what they want to do. ***They're developing I think more than one idea, and I think which ever develops the most and they like the best is the one that will get made and I don't know which one that will be.***
-------------------------------
On the future of Farscape beyond the comics:
Jeffrey Harris: I've been loving the comics for Farscape that take place after the Peacekeeper Wars. And there was also talk of continuing Farscape through mini-webisodes. And then there were some setbacks with the writer's strike and then the economy crashing. Do you think we could still see them at some point in the future?
Brian Henson: Yes. I want to say confidently yes. I pretty much never give up on something if I think it's a good idea. What we have is, we've got a very good, creative, solid concept of what the next chapter of Farscape is once Aeryn and Crichton's son gets a little older. So there really is a plan here. The comic books are in the gap and that's deliberate and we know exactly what we're doing. So the next things that we'll see on the big screen or the small screen, but on screen, will follow from what you are now reading in the comic books.
------------
(As an aside to those who haven't had a chance to check out Boom's Farscape comics, right now the story is immediately after PK Wars John/Aeryn's child is still a baby - so they have a plan for a story arc that would take place a couple years down the line - pretty smart considering the time it would take that to reach the screen and where the story being told in the comics would be by that time)
The entire interview is at http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/127167/411mania-Interviews:--Brian-Henson.htm - it goes through a lot of territory but here's the interesting most important parts:
Jeffrey Harris: Some people have been very critical of you and the way you've run the Jim Henson Company. People have said about Brian Henson that for you, this is just a business and not your passion. But seeing the fantastic work you've done on things like Farscape, I don't know how people can say. Does that ever bother you?
Brian Henson: I think the biggest criticism of me is that I did sell the company to EMTV. That I did buy the company back and shrink it, and that I sold the Muppets . . . First was, I led the company to be sold in 2000 and I think that was shocking to people, why would the Henson family sell the Henson company? And they just don't understand the situation at that time. We were in an environment in the industry and in America where by television production was being done by the TV channels because the TV channels were now being allowed to own their programming. And if they were going to buy programming that they hadn't produced, it would be from only small companies that they would think are not very competitive. So we were literally in a market where we were shut out of the industry, shut out of television. And that was going to ruin the company. So at that point we needed to merge the Jim Henson company with a bigger entity that owned TV channels. That was the reason that I did that.
It's perfectly understandable that some of the public would go, what did he do? He sold the company. It never mattered to him in the first place. That's their feeling. It's not true at all. Everything I did was to try and assure the longterm success of the company. Then, when the company we sold to failed very quickly, EMTV, I led the initiative to buy the company back and I think at that point all the fans were saying, oh I guess wasn't the bad guy that we thought he was. I guess he is the same guy that kept the Muppets alive, made Muppet Christmas Carol, made Muppet Treasure Island, and gosh I got him wrong, thank goodness and we're all so excited that the Henson family has bought back the Jim Henson Company. Then, when I led to initiative to sell the controlling interest of the Muppets to Disney, everybody was shocked again and just said oh I guess he was the bad guy that I thought he was.
That's really the course of the negative feelings about me, and I totally understand people's feelings. People don't know the inner workings of a company and why decisions are made. My dad always wanted the Muppets to be in Disney World. He always thought that was the way the Muppets should live on. And so selling the Muppets was a way of ensuring the future success of the Muppets. Now I do think that Disney has gone a little slowly in the 5 years that they have had the Muppets. And I certainly appreciate people's concerns, well what's -- where's the Disney production engine making Muppets? And I do honestly believe they will come around. We will start seeing a lot more Muppet production and it will be good and Disney are careful about their characters. So I think when you hear people saying that I've been criticized as it's just a business, it's so not true. I mean on a deal by deal basis, I've always put creative first. I've always put quality first. And obviously, I commit 100% creatively to anything that I get involved with but some of those bigger business decisions are very complex, the reasons why they're done. And every decision was to ensure longevity for the Henson Company and the Henson name and to ensure the creative quality. And I think people look at the roller coaster the Muppets have been on: the Muppets went over to EMTV, then the Muppets came back to Henson, then the Muppets went over to Disney and they think that oh that's just a bunch of horrible corporate business moves. And they don't understand why we were doing what we were doing, but I promise you every move that we made was to ensure the careful handling of the future of the Muppets and to place them in the right place. And I could be wrong, fans could be right, but I still stand by what we did.
--------------------------
On the new Muppet movie (note the last part i put in emphasis):
Jeffrey Harris: I remember reading that Jason Segel was writing a new Muppet movie for Disney. Is that still in the works?
Brian Henson: Well again now you're with Disney so you really do need to talk to Disney about that. As far as I know -- and I know about as much about it as everybody else -- but I do know that there is a re-energized effort to get the Muppets into the movie theatres with a movie. And I'm very glad because initially when the Muppets first moved over to Disney, there was a lot of talk where the should the Muppets go? What kind of production? Should they do a little web series? Should they do TV series? And I was always a firm believer that they should aim high and do a proper, great Disney movie with the big Disney marketing plan and do a great Muppet movie. So, I'm actually pleased that even though they've taken a long time, that clearly is -- they've now made the decision that that's what they want to do. ***They're developing I think more than one idea, and I think which ever develops the most and they like the best is the one that will get made and I don't know which one that will be.***
-------------------------------
On the future of Farscape beyond the comics:
Jeffrey Harris: I've been loving the comics for Farscape that take place after the Peacekeeper Wars. And there was also talk of continuing Farscape through mini-webisodes. And then there were some setbacks with the writer's strike and then the economy crashing. Do you think we could still see them at some point in the future?
Brian Henson: Yes. I want to say confidently yes. I pretty much never give up on something if I think it's a good idea. What we have is, we've got a very good, creative, solid concept of what the next chapter of Farscape is once Aeryn and Crichton's son gets a little older. So there really is a plan here. The comic books are in the gap and that's deliberate and we know exactly what we're doing. So the next things that we'll see on the big screen or the small screen, but on screen, will follow from what you are now reading in the comic books.
------------
(As an aside to those who haven't had a chance to check out Boom's Farscape comics, right now the story is immediately after PK Wars John/Aeryn's child is still a baby - so they have a plan for a story arc that would take place a couple years down the line - pretty smart considering the time it would take that to reach the screen and where the story being told in the comics would be by that time)
