The New Movie: The Muppets

[goodrastus]

Just read this on another site. Quoted article below.

Cast and script details for the forthcoming Muppets movie have leaked online.
The Playlist claims that George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Sarah Jessica Parker and Ben Stiller make cameo appearances in the film's screenplay.
Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Chris Rock, Mel Brooks, Matt Damon and Norah Jones are also linked to the film.
The plot will apparently centre around the retired and much-loved Muppets characters attempting to stop the closure of the TV studio where the original series was produced.
The big screen adaptation, which was announced in 2008, currently has the working title of The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time.
Flight of the Conchords director James Bobin has been offered to helm the movie.

Link is http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a202529/clooney-hathaway-for-muppets-revival.html

 

[dwmckim]

My head is spinning with the myriad of conflicting news reports. I haven't been this dizzy since i used to "dance" to Sesame Street records by running around my bedroom in circles.

 

[frogboy4]

I thought they were blending both the Segel and the Henson scripts together because the "Cheapest" movie was just a treatment and the "Greatest" movie took nearly ten pages for any actual Muppets to appear onscreen. The D23 conference announced "Cheapest" so I'll go with that until Disney makes another statement. They're the ones footing the bill afterall.

 

[James Denny]

I thought they were blending both the Segel and the Henson scripts together because the "Cheapest" movie was just a treatment and the "Greatest" movie took nearly ten pages for any actual Muppets to appear onscreen. The D23 conference announced "Cheapest" so I'll go with that until Disney makes another statement. They're the ones footing the bill afterall.

Friend of mine emailed me virtually the same article from Empire.com, and they're usually pretty reliable

 

[Beauregard]

My head is spinning with the myriad of conflicting news reports. I haven't been this dizzy since i used to "dance" to Sesame Street records by running around my bedroom in circles.

Honestly, I don't care what news is spinning around the place...so long as there IS news, and people are interested in it, I am happy.

 

[Drtooth]

My head is spinning with the myriad of conflicting news reports. I haven't been this dizzy since i used to "dance" to Sesame Street records by running around my bedroom in circles.

Exactly. From what we can piece form the little shards of news with inferior glue and the pieces don't exactly fit together so you got to force them together... the working title is the Greatest blah blah blah instead of the announced title of "Cheapest." The article has no forward news that "Cheapest" was announced, and if they're still going by the "leaked" script, there probably are changes they don't know about.

Unless of course, 2 scripts are being made by 2 groups and one is a dummy script that was SUPPOSED to be leaked as a red herring.

So basically, we haven't got any strong solid news one way or another.

 

[GuySmileyfan]

I just hope the new Muppet movie be better than Muppets From Space and the ridiculous Muppets Wizard of Oz.

 

[Drtooth]

Again, I put all the blame for MFS into the hands of Tim "Mundane is KING" Hill. What does it say when you're best movie is Alvin and the Chipmunks? Joey Mazzaino wrote a great script with a complex ending that got cut for scenes of Muppets checking the mail, mowing lawns, and basically half the dang movie was them doing chores. Changing the ending to something so banal and disappointing (as well as killing off a cameo by Traveling Matt) was inexcusable.

As for Oz, I think they've learned their lesson with that one. Doing another pre-existing story movie (like MCC and MTI) was bad enough, but the stunt casting, at the moment gags, grabbing at too many focus groups, the poorly written songs (which is still better than a 1970's funk track), and ugly look of the film overall turned what was an inadvisable idea into a bad one, and I still think the thing was rushed out to show the Disney stock holders. It really is a low point for Muppet fans, since so many better scripts were sitting on a shelf or in a filing cabinet.

 

[haakonsmary]

Changing the ending to something so banal and disappointing (as well as killing off a cameo by Traveling Matt) was inexcusable.

There was supposed to be a Traveling Matt cameo? Any details on where he would have showed up? That would have been great.

Is the original MFS script available to read anywhere?

 

[Mupp]

Again, I put all the blame for MFS into the hands of Tim "Mundane is KING" Hill. What does it say when you're best movie is Alvin and the Chipmunks? Joey Mazzaino wrote a great script with a complex ending that got cut for scenes of Muppets checking the mail, mowing lawns, and basically half the dang movie was them doing chores. Changing the ending to something so banal and disappointing (as well as killing off a cameo by Traveling Matt) was inexcusable.

As for Oz, I think they've learned their lesson with that one. Doing another pre-existing story movie (like MCC and MTI) was bad enough, but the stunt casting, at the moment gags, grabbing at too many focus groups, the poorly written songs (which is still better than a 1970's funk track), and ugly look of the film overall turned what was an inadvisable idea into a bad one, and I still think the thing was rushed out to show the Disney stock holders. It really is a low point for Muppet fans, since so many better scripts were sitting on a shelf or in a filing cabinet.

I agree. I would have loved to see Joey Mazzaino's script used for Muppets From Space. The film could have been so much better.

And yes, there were quite a few issues with Oz. I liked some parts, but for one thing, in retrospect it would have been better if Piggy were not the villain, and if they had casted someone else as Dorothy. (I remember hearing that they had a lot of problems casting Dorothy, so who knows what was going on behind the scenes.

Anyway, its in the past. Muppets' Oz was made under Michael Eisner's watch, and he's gone now.