More Details on Jason Segel's THE GREATEST MUPPET MOVIE OF ALL TIME
The last thing we heard about this project was that Flight of the Conchords director James Bobin might end up directing it. I'm happy to announce that he has been confirmed as the director The Greatest Muppet movie of All Time. This guy is going to do a brilliant job with this movie.
As you know the script for the film was written by Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, How I Met Your Mother) and Nicholas Stoller (director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall), the movie used to be called, The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, the film is now called, The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time, which is definitely a much more positive title.
They're story follows a man named Gary, his girlfriend named Mary and the man’s life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend Walter must round up and convince the now retired entertainers from the original Muppet Show to help save the famous television studio that the original variety series was filmed in. The film’s evil villain, Tex Richman, is due to take over the property, and wants to destroy the theater and drill for oil underneath.
Now, thanks to The Playlist we've got some more information on the script for the film and what we can expect. Here is a part of their review:
It's a solid attempt at recapturing what made "The Muppet Show" and the first two Muppetmovies so great, but "The Great Muppet Movie of All Time" is no "Great Muppet Caper" — 'Caper' being to the first Muppets film, what "The Empire Strikes Back" is to "Star Wars" — but it is a fresh, younger approach. Stoller and Segel have fun with the characters, are aware of what made the Muppet early years so great (winks to the audience, friendly musical numbers, single gag repetition, friendship and togetherness being the answer to everything), and hit the mark 65% of the time. We're hoping the songs (the majority of which were missing from the script) help elevate the script from a harmless Muppet flick to a more memorable one, but there's more work to be done first. But what their script lacks (oddly enough, this being a Muppet movie and all) is forward pulse. "The Muppet Movie" is about a frog's drive to get to Hollywood and the people he meets along the way and the friendships he makes.
The person that read the script definitely isn't 100% sold on the script. Perhaps the script he read is a first draft and has since been polished. I'm still holding out for hope that it will end up being a good, solid, fun Muppet movie. Make sure head on over to The Playlist to read the rest of the review.