The Muppet Man BioPic

[Beauregard]

Yeah, I'm sure if Disney and JHC are involved then we are going to have a piece that is beautiful and imaginative rather than the snippets of the other script we've seen in the past.

Certainly if they DO follow the formula and story of the original screenplay, I'm 100% against it.

But even if they don't...I'm still about 85% against a movie being made of Jim Henson while the Muppets are still around as themselves. I love making-of specials where we see the Puppeteers, and, yes, everyone knows the Muppets are puppets...But a mainstream movie which states this specifically? I'm not keen on that idea at all.

 

[antsamthompson9]

I posted a sperate tread about this, but maybe I'll find it better here. Does anyone have a link to the script? I wanna see if it's as bad as Steve Swanson says it is.

 

[Beauregard]

I just checked the link that Muppet Mindset used to have and at script shadow where it was originally reviewed and the download link isn't working anymore.

I had a chance to read it while it was floating about and, suffice to say, it actually WAS as bad (probably worse) than anyone has described it as being.

 

[dwayne1115]

Here is the thing that I will say, and I think most all of us will agree. As long as this movie does not hurt the respect of Jim Henson or hurt the work of the Muppets, and other projects that Henson worked on then it should not be made.

However a movie about how Henson and his wonderful creative team came together and started one of the greatest groups(The Muppets) then I'm all for it!

 

[uppitymuppity]

I kind of liked the script. Needs some work, but it didn't sound terrible.

 

[frogboy4]

I kind of liked the script. Needs some work, but it didn't sound terrible.

My take on it was that the author mistook Jim's personality for that of the lead character in Permanent Midnight. In fact, the hallucinations and crude, decrepit behavior of Kermit and the Muppets seems lifted from the concept of the Ben Stiller film. He also stitched this together with wildly inaccurate information. I'm sure the story will be quite different once Disney's script doctors pounce on it...and in this case I'm glad.

Three key observations about Jim gleaned from the works and interviews most fans have seen over the years:

1- Jim Henson wasn't precious with the puppets, nor did he think of them as living beings. To him they were colorful props in the hands of skilled performers with the purpose of creating an illusion. He didn't chat with Kermit unless on a talk show.

2- Jim didn't ever see the Muppet characters as aging. They'd just evolve with an ageless grace. It's been said countless times that Jim had a youthful spirit and didn't much like growing older and the puppets were a way of keeping that spark. Kermit should never grow old.

3- Jim Henson didn't see himself as a children's performer, but he didn't like alienating the younger audience either. His work communicates on many different levels while remaining simplistic at the core.

These three factors seem to have been overlooked by the screenwriter and that’s what bothers me most. His Jim isn’t a pasteurized version, but it isn’t very close to what we know of the real Jim either and he admits to have invented these crucial bits.

I like that the project is moving forward, but see the script as only a very rough springboard rather than an actual shoot-worthy screenplay.

 

[dwayne1115]

You can't really get to know who Jim Henson was from watching old clips of Sam and Friends, The Muppet Show, Sesame Street and other shows and movies. You also can't really get who he really was by watching every interview he ever did.
The only way you can really get a hold on who Jim Henson really was is with the accounts of the people he was around, both personaly and profesionaly. You could also get a real good idea who the man really was if he kept like a journal, or diary. You would be able to read his thoughs on any givin day, and kind of see what he thought about the things going on in his life,

I feel if they are going to do a movie on ethier his life or his career, then you need to take the time and truly do the reseach on who Jim Henson was, and what the Muppets, and his work still are to this very day.
I almost think that a movie or book like this should bo done by someone the Henson's feel comfertable with. Someone that will show both sides to the stroy, and not ust the sides that make Henson look like a God, but as a human, but do it without running the credability of the Henson/Muppet name through the mud.
For insintst I love the book Street Gang, but I felt the author was a little critical of some of Jim Henson's other work. Sure not all of the work of the Muppets, and Henson where a succsess, but they where never cheaply made, and you could always tell Jim had a passion about what he was working on.
This is just how I feel, and I think others do to. The name Henson, and the name Muppet have built a lot of respect over the past 60 plus years. I would hate to see it messed with because of a bio pic.

 

[Vic Romano]

I've had some fascinating discussions about who Jim was and who he is interpreted to be, and understanding that I don't think anyone would want a defamatory biopic made about Jim, and the forum rules against making personal remarks about people associated with the Muppets, I'd like to delicately make two points that I wonder what people think of, and how a biopic would approach them.

1. Jim and Jane's separation
It's no secret they separated, but never divorced. However, depending on who you talk to or what you read, some described Jim (especially later in life) as a womanizer. Street Gang even hints to a romantic relationship to Daryl Hanah. I've personally met several reputable people who worked in NYC in the late 80's who had worked with or around Jim and noted that he was flirtatious with women. Nothing inappropriate, just comfortable flirtation.

2. Jane's legacy
Once again, not trying to make inflammatory remarks, but rather based on documented works like Street Gang, Jim reached out to Jane on his death bed, and Mr. Davis notes that it was a strange move on Jim's part. It basically sealed the deal on Jane's legacy, who to this day is credited as a major force in the creation of the Muppets, despite only being briefly involved with them at the very beginning.

We eulogize and personify Jim to god-like proportions, but at the end of the day he was a man with strengths and weaknesses just like everybody else.

I always thought something like this should be done like Finding Neverland where we see the world through J.M. Barrie's eyes at the same time as seeing it through everyone elses.

 

[D'Snowth]

Truth be told, even though Jim IS my biggest hero, and my biggest source of inspiration as far as my being a puppeteer is concerned, I never did regard him, or even think of him as a god-like figure, because, like you said Davo, he too was just a person like everyone else, he too had strengths like everyone else, and he too had weaknesses like everyone else.

Not trying repeat of paraphrase anything that's already been said, my point is the issue of fabrication/fictionalization and misinterpreting events of one's life and blowing things out of proportion for creative licenses/dramatic effect/shock factor/etc. I just cringe to think of what come of a partially or even mostly fabricated biopic about Jim.

 

[frogboy4]

An Excerpt

Here's the problem that fans would have with the screenplay right off the bat. Here is the first page of Christopher Weekes' "The Muppet Man" script from August 2008:

INT. DECREPIT HOTEL ROOM, MOO YORK - NIGHT

KERMIT THE FROG, twenty years older than we've ever seen him before, wakes from a DRUNKEN NIGHTMARE.

He stares, blood shot, at a WHISKEY BOTTLE on his BEDSIDE - a three day growth giving his felt chin a strongly pronounced six o'clock shadow.

He struggles out of BED - hobbling to his WINDOW. Scratching his GREEN BUTT , KERMIT stares down into the street.

MOO YORK looks a lot like NEW YORK - a gritty, grimy metro-style hot pot of MUPPETS from all walks of LIFE - some drunks, some homeless, some rich, some poor, some a mix and match of everything.

A GIANT STATUE OF LIBERTY-BELL, a COW, hangs off from the HAVOC RIVER. Its BEAKON, a milk bucket, pulses an orange glow across the perpetually dirty city...

...mesmerizing KERMIT.

KERMIT
(sad under breath)
Hi-ho. Kermit the Frog here.​

Kermit stares at a WEDDING INVITE on his DRESSER.

"...CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO THE WEDDING OF MISS PIGGY AND LINK HOGTHROB".

A photo of MISS PIGGY and LINK HOGTHROB atop a CARRIAGE IN CENTRAL PARK beams back at him.

KERMIT scrunches the INVITE up and POURS HIMSELF ANOTHER DRINK.

INT. BEDROOM, JIM HENSON'S NY HOME, 1990 - MORNING

JIM HENSON, 53, a tall, lanky and gentle soul, slowly opens his eyes - much like KERMIT in the scene above.

He grabs an ASPIRIN from the BEDSIDE.

JIM pulls himself from BED, dressed elegantly as ever in his pin-striped pajamas. He glares out the WINDOW...

...at UPPER MANHATTAN. There's street after street of the most expensive TOWN HOUSES the city can buy - no trash or homeless in sight.

JIM moves his attention to a PHOTO of his family on the DRESSER, taken some years back - JANE HENSON and the kids - BRIAN, LISA, CHERYL, JOHN and HEATHER - look back.

_______________________​

I think it's okay to publish this much to get the gyst. It's interesting, but not right in so many areas. I really think Disney and Henson are looking at the high-concept theme, but not this particular point of view. Just my take. This was on the black list afterall.