Valentine Could Pull Muppet Strings with Bid to Acquire Jim Henson Co.

[Sweetums74]

Valentine Could Pull Muppet Strings with Bid to Acquire Jim Henson Co.

(Hollywood Reporter) -- Former UPN president and CEO Dean Valentine has emerged as the latest suitor to field an offer for the Jim Henson Co. Sources said Valentine has eyed Kermit and Co. as the foundation for a children's programming venture that he's considering launching in partnership with Mort Marcus, formerly a top TV executive at Buena Vista Television and Miramax. Valentine became familiar with Henson this year after he was hired by investment advisory firm Europlay Capital Advisors to help Henson's troubled German parent company EM.TV evaluate its options for selling Henson. It's now understood that Europlay could play a part in helping Valentine acquire the company. Sources said Valentine, who ended his four-year run at UPN in Janu-ary, sees the Henson assets as the basis for a start-up production venture whose initial focus would be on di-rect-to-video releases. Valentine's competition in the Henson bidding, which appears to be getting close to the finish line after more than a year of false starts, includes billionaire Haim Saban and a separate group led by members of Henson's current management team. Valentine, Marcus and Europlay declined comment.

 

[Luke]

Originally posted by Sweetums74
Sources said Valentine, who ended his four-year run at UPN in Janu-ary, sees the Henson assets as the basis for a start-up production venture whose initial focus would be on di-rect-to-video releases. Valentine's competition in the Henson bidding, which appears to be getting close to the finish line after more than a year of false starts, includes billionaire Haim Saban and a separate group led by members of Henson's current management team. Valentine, Marcus and Europlay declined comment.

*shudders* direct-to-video ??? Oh jeez, well i guess it'd be better than them going down with EMTV and controlled by some bank but i think Henson deserve more than being public eye candy for some nice family orientated start up production company - it doesn't state whether there is even chance of NEW direct to video stuff or whether they would just be bought for the existing tape library. That'd really take the Henson Company a million miles away from their current ideas, focus and strategy and just put them back into the void they were in before. Saban doesn't even seem like a decent place for them and if they end up with the company selling cheap enough for a management buy-out they are left without the funds, deals and get-go to actually move forward. Things are pretty dire for a company that can produce such great stuff - it's a shame any of the major companies like Disney or Warner can't see any potential for them so they are left as 'kiddie fare' for the smaller guys.

 

[beaker]

And the red herring dance continutes...

Good to see the Muppet fans can pick out whats fact and what is speculation...I See this is yet another in a long line of 'name dropping' we'll be hearing in AP wires.

Where's the mouse messiah when ya need em? C'mon Eisner! You got a couple hundred million lying around!

 

[stgebaby]

eisner

no no no no no don't let eisner have muppets. bad bad bad. wrong wrong wrong wrong. he will kill it. you will never hear from or see the muppets again if he gets them. and even if you do, they will be ruined, horrible little cartoon versions of the once greatness that they were.

 

[GWGumby]

That "direct to video" line scares me tremendously. The last thing I want is Muppet films put out like "Land Before Time XXIII: LittleFoot's Revenge." Yes, there is a market for this type of product, but seldom is it ever a good product--and it's almost never for anyone other than kids, unless it is strictly *adult* material.

I think that could be more hurtful to the Muppet brand in pigeonholing them to nothing more than children's entertainment than Disney did by putting their movies out in clamshell format.

 

[murgatoad]

I'm guessing that the lackluster ratings performance of the movie probably doesn't inspire much interest in producing new stuff, so the Muppet archives are probably Valentine's main interest in the company. Although the Henson library has been pretty much plundered by now, what with the Time-Life campaign and so on, so who knows how much that is worth anymore? As for Disney buying the Mups - doubtful. "Treasure Planet" is a major disaster for its animation division, and that's bad bad news for Diz. Why lay out cash for a faded commodity when your own product is in trouble?

Too bad about "Treasure Planet", BTW. It's a pretty good flick altogether. It just lacks a compelling central character (a la Simba or Stitch) and had the bad luck to come out against a superior "Harry Potter" sequel.

 

[sarah_yzma]

Re: eisner

Originally posted by stgebaby
no no no no no don't let eisner have muppets. bad bad bad. wrong wrong wrong wrong. he will kill it.

RIGHT YOU ARE RIGHT THERE IS A REASON EISNER DID NOT GET HIS STICKY HANDS ON THEM BEFORE!!!! THAT IS IT HE WILL TIGHTEN THE NOOSE!

 

[stgebaby]

eisner

eisner is a moron. just for example (my favorite example for lousy public relations) last christmas eisner was on either leno or letterman ( i can't remember which) and he said loud and proud for the ENTIRE NATION that all disney employees could be replaced by trained monkeys. isn't he smart?

 

[sarah_yzma]

Re: eisner

Originally posted by stgebaby
eisner is a moron.

yup yup yup i hate eisner *no sarah you shouldn't hate* i love everything about the disney co. except for him! they should replace him with monkeys! he's put disney very close to debt!

 

[beaker]

Yeah, funny thing about Treasure Planet. Funny thing about Disney. I went to the Disney Store, and nary ANY Spirited Away or Bear in the Big Blue House stuff to be found. Those idiots didnt even know what the heck Spirited Away was...I told em, oh only the best animated film this year that Disney put its name on to release here(and then purposely under promoted it like they did with Princess Mononoke) So thats just sad...then again they knew Spirited Away blew away their own traditional animation...which still isnt more than anime styled cgi riddled Don Bluth.

Now I can understand why noone's heard of Spirited Away, though it will be up for an oscar. I mean Disney is probably right in that most of America isnt ready to embrace anything traditionally Japanese(Heck wasnt Crouching Tiger dubbed in English when it was released on the video market?)
but what's up with NO new Bear stuff??? The first new Season in two years, its the holidays...sheesh.

Well if you want endlessly pink and vomit inducing crag, go to the Disney store ASAP!