"I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story" documentary in development

[Speed Tracer]

I had the amazing good fortune while standing in line to Bungee jump at the Kawarau bridge near Queenstown NZ on a drab February 26, 1992 afternoon to chat to the tall fellow next in line. "Where are you from?" he said, I said "Canada". "My wife is from Quebec" said he and I was introduced to her. I asked "What do you do?" "I'm Big Bird, I have the best job in the world. I work six months and take the rest of the year off." It was Carroll Spinney. Wow! He did a brief Big Bird monologue which caught a lot of attention. He went off the bridge before me. I remember every minute like it was yesterday.

WOW! What an incredible story!

 

[minor muppetz]

I had the amazing good fortune while standing in line to Bungee jump at the Kawarau bridge near Queenstown NZ on a drab February 26, 1992 afternoon to chat to the tall fellow next in line. "Where are you from?" he said, I said "Canada". "My wife is from Quebec" said he and I was introduced to her. I asked "What do you do?" "I'm Big Bird, I have the best job in the world. I work six months and take the rest of the year off." It was Carroll Spinney. Wow! He did a brief Big Bird monologue which caught a lot of attention. He went off the bridge before me. I remember every minute like it was yesterday.

You sure are lucky!

It's been said that the company producing this documentary will have to get clearance from many companies, saying that home movie footage and footage of Caroll with Picklepuss will be easier to clear... I wonder if footage owned by Sesame Workshop will actually be difficult. I doubt it (and I assume they have given permission to use Big Bird's name in the title), and hopefully any required Sesame Street clip will be easy to clear.

 

[Lucky Creek]

WOW! What an incredible story!

I wish I had a picture of Caroll and myself, but carrying a camera was not an option. The bungee on the right had just carried Big Bird on his flight (plummet) to the river below, and I had a bird's eye view next up in my team rugby kit. Lucky me for sure.

 

[CopperPot]

Hey guys!

Dave from Copper Pot Pictures (the I AM BIG BIRD production company) here. We love the enthusiasm for the project... definitely send any questions you have to us through our website (http://www.iambigbird.com/contact-us/). We respond personally to all of them (though it sometimes takes a few days).

We did want to weigh in on the clearance issue just to clarify a bit... basically, the Workshop has been UNBELIEVABLE. They're so helpful. Clearing any of the footage they own is actually quite simple. Of course, if a Sesame character appears on a network special (like, say Big Bird on "Night of 100 Stars" on NBC or Oscar the Grouch on Jimmey Kimmel), the rights and clearances get trickier. So, we're making an effort to make as much of the material as we can available to the public, but it does take a lot of time and, in some cases, heavy licensing fees.

Thanks for your interest--we really value your feedback and questions. Don't hesitate to get in touch!

Dave LaMattina

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Hey guys!

Dave from Copper Pot Pictures (the I AM BIG BIRD production company) here. We love the enthusiasm for the project... definitely send any questions you have to us through our website (http://www.iambigbird.com/contact-us/). We respond personally to all of them (though it sometimes takes a few days).

Dave! Welcome! Glad you're here! (I spoke to you via email already)
It's really cool that you guys are doing this. I really can't wait for this.
Have you guys decided what's going to be with the film when it's done? Is it going to theaters?
Anyway, Welcome!

 

[CopperPot]

Thanks! We're looking at mid-late 2013 for a release; it will certainly be in theaters, but where and when is typically determined by the distributor's plan, as they usually have a good read on the market. We are anticipating a good festival run to be followed by a theatrical release. We'll make sure you all have a chance to see it!

 

[minor muppetz]

Are you allowed to accept requests/suggestions on what clips we'd like to see included?

 

[D'Snowth]

Thanks! We're looking at mid-late 2013 for a release; it will certainly be in theaters, but where and when is typically determined by the distributor's plan, as they usually have a good read on the market. We are anticipating a good festival run to be followed by a theatrical release. We'll make sure you all have a chance to see it!

Forgive me for sounding impatient, but I don't know if I can wait that long for it to be released, haha.

But I must say I'm really glad this is going to have such a wide theatrical release, because I am really looking forward to seeing this; seeing Being Elmo recently on Independent Lens was worth the wait, because it wasn't playing in any theaters in my town.

 

[CopperPot]

Are you allowed to accept requests/suggestions on what clips we'd like to see included?

Sure! We have a pretty solid outline of the film in mind and there is a lot of amazing footage that we know we'll be using, but we welcome any thoughts you guys have!

 

[CopperPot]

Forgive me for sounding impatient, but I don't know if I can wait that long for it to be released, haha.

But I must say I'm really glad this is going to have such a wide theatrical release, because I am really looking forward to seeing this; seeing Being Elmo recently on Independent Lens was worth the wait, because it wasn't playing in any theaters in my town.

I know, we want to see it done soon too We have so much archival material to go through and some traveling to get all the interviews done!

And because we do have so much material, we're going to be releasing lots of stuff at various points throughout the production (which will most likely begin with the launch of our Kickstarter campaign in a few months). Like I might have said elsewhere on these boards, we're going to use Twitter to be the central hub for movie news because it's the best way for us to reach true fans without annoying them! We'll obviously then post stuff on our website, YouTube, etc., but definitely @Copper_Pot will be where all our news breaks.