Henson talking to Disney and Viacom for potential partnership deals

[BoyRaisin2]

Yeah, it seems that the "new Jim Henson Company" approach is to just CREATE and not finance or distribute their own stuff. Of course they've done that with their movies, but does this mean all the stuff Henson makes from now on, including the TV shows, will be OWNED by other companies? Because "distribute" is basically another word for "own." Not that that's a bad thing of course, just as long as Henson has creative control.

But it'd be nice if Disney got the deal, just for the slim CHANCE they'd release Muppets@WDW on VHS or DVD.

 

[blackurth]

just one question......does this mean that disney may finally re-re-release the muppet movie soundtrack(and possibly fraggle rock music) on compact disc?the muppet movie,great muppet caper,muppets take manhattan.

 

[Chilly Down]

"Distribute" and "own" aren't the same thing, actually. George Lucas owns the Star Wars movies; 20th Century Fox only distributes them. I guess ITC (Lord Grade's company) only distributed TMS, since the rights reverted back to Henson in the late '80s/early '90s.

As long as the Muppets remain somewhat profitable, though, I expect Disney will want to hold on to the productions that they distribute. Even after the classic Muppet movie trilogy became distributed under Columbia TriStar, Disney held on to MCC and MTI. That's not so bad, as long as the product's out there. It's a dream of mine to one day have a boxed set of ALL the Muppet movies released by one distributor...but if it doesn't happen, I suppose I'll survive.

As for the Muppet movie soundtracks, who knows? Anything can happen. Some of the songs were included on the 25th anniversary CD. At any rate, I bet you can find the soundtracks really cheap on eBay right now. (And someone can correct me if I don't know what I'm talking about here.)

 

[Ryan]

just one question......does this mean that disney may finally re-re-release the muppet movie soundtrack(and possibly fraggle rock music) on compact disc?the muppet movie,great muppet caper,muppets take manhattan.

I'm not an expert in the area, but I'm pretty sure BMG KIDZ released them originally, which was not a division of Disney. So, no, I doubt they would re-release them. Again, there's other people here who are more informed in this type of stuff than I am, however.

 

[Luke]

Rumor was a while back that Rhino were considering other CD releases.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

"Distribute" and "own" aren't the same thing, actually. George Lucas owns the Star Wars movies; 20th Century Fox only distributes them. I guess ITC (Lord Grade's company) only distributed TMS, since the rights reverted back to Henson in the late '80s/early '90s.

Good point, I guess it's what kind of deal you have. Compare the Fox/Lucas arrangement to, say, Disney and Pixar. I know the Pixar people would like to have a deal like that.

 

[Elasaid]

It was a sad day when I went to go buy Cheerios and I found that I could get a free DVD copy of The Muppets Take Manhatten.

With the Henson family buying back the company and the potential for partnerships my only hope is that the company I had hoped to work for when I was a kid will find itself again and get back some of that old spark.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I always said that the JHC needs to study what they did to become successful, and for the most part copy that with a modern twist to keep it updated. They seem to stray a bit in their writings, etc.

 

[ScrapsFlippy]

This is a very good sign - If JHC is talking to distributors it means that they have some projects in the works and are looking for some capitol to get rolling. It's a very common practice for a production company to "pre-sell" a product (tv show, movie, etc.) to a distributor and use the advance funds to start the ball rolling.

Most likely JHC would retain the rights to these new productions, but the distribution rights would belong to Viacom or Disney for a certain number of years.

So in other words, Disney or Viacom would not "own" the product. Just the right to distribute it. Both companies are going great-guns packaging and distributing their own productions, and as someone stated earlier in this thread, they have beaucoup distribution avenues (cable tv, network tv, dvd, publishing, theme parks, etc.)

Let's just hope that whoever inks a deal with JHC recognizes the creative potential they're funding and gives our Muppety friends free rein to do that voodoo that they do so well.

-- Mssr. Scraps

 

[ryhoyarbie]

I always said that the JHC needs to study what they did to become successful, and for the most part copy that with a modern twist to keep it updated. They seem to stray a bit in their writings, etc.

i think that would also help the henson's with their plan. it's kind of like life from my view point, where i look at the things that either were successful or not and what it took to be successful at something.

but who know's, maybe they have and they know that although they bought the company back, now they need a big name to help distribute things that people will buy.

ryan