Jim Henson Biography Gets a Release Date

jvcarroll

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It will be interesting to read how this biography shapes Jim Henson's life. They don't need to include every gritty detail. They really shouldn't gloss-over everything either. It's a tightrope act. I'm excited to see what happens here.
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"The Muppet Man" biopic script was purchased by Disney a few years back. Pages of it were posted online through different sources and I've got to tell you it was pretty awful. It treated the Muppets as aging characters that Jim would talk to. People who have worked with Jim have remarked that he wasn't precious about the puppets when the cameras stopped rolling. His passion was in the craftsmanship of each production. Disney may one day want to incorporate those types of reformatted elements into a future project of Jim's life, but I doubt they'll use Christopher Weekes's telling. He was pretty loose on the facts and admittedly had no more information than could be found online. It is my belief that they only purchased the screenplay in order to shelve it. A true Henson biopic will require the involvement of Henson, Disney and Sesame. While I don't think that's out of the question, it's not likely to happen any time soon.
 

MrBloogarFoobly

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It will be interesting to read how this biography shapes Jim Henson's life. They don't need to include every gritty detail. They really shouldn't gloss-over everything either. It's a tightrope act. I'm excited to see what happens here.
___​

"The Muppet Man" biopic script was purchased by Disney a few years back. Pages of it were posted online through different sources and I've got to tell you it was pretty awful. It treated the Muppets as aging characters that Jim would talk to. People who have worked with Jim have remarked that he wasn't precious about the puppets when the cameras stopped rolling. His passion was in the craftsmanship of each production. Disney may one day want to incorporate those types of reformatted elements into a future project of Jim's life, but I doubt they'll use Christopher Weekes's telling. He was pretty loose on the facts and admittedly had no more information than could be found online. It is my belief that they only purchased the screenplay in order to shelve it. A true Henson biopic will require the involvement of Henson, Disney and Sesame. While I don't think that's out of the question, it's not likely to happen any time soon.
Yeah, the script was bad. It was sappy and dark in all the wrong places, formulated to make audiences cry and to win oscars and emmys. Lots of Jim/Jane fight scenes, and maudlin moments like Kermit walking through the ER as Henson dies, singing "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday." Really cheesy, and not at all a proper biopic for someone as upbeat as Henson.

The author admitted he just took facts off of wikipedia. Not really a good job all around.
 

jvcarroll

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Yeah, the script was bad. It was sappy and dark in all the wrong places, formulated to make audiences cry and to win oscars and emmys. Lots of Jim/Jane fight scenes, and maudlin moments like Kermit walking through the ER as Henson dies, singing "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday." Really cheesy, and not at all a proper biopic for someone as upbeat as Henson.

The author admitted he just took facts off of wikipedia. Not really a good job all around.
Exactly. It wasn't very Muppety and it wasn't very Jim either. It contained less information than an average elementary school student's book report. I didn't understand the buzz around it. I kind of felt it was self-created. The script was supposedly "black listed" but the real story is that it probably wasn't very good. It did appear that Disney bought it for the sake of damage control and so people would stop talking about it and focus on their Muppets movie instead. Smart move!
 
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