Brian Henson says Muppet-like Crime Thriller THE HAPPYTIME MURDERERS Will be Rated-R?!

Movie by Eli Reyes

 

Brian Henson, son of legendary Muppet patriarch Jim Henson, recently spoke with NYMag about the Stuffed and Unstrung, the Henson Company’s new live “adults only” improv show that starts a ten-week at New York’s Union Square Theater tonight, he also got a chance to give some updates on the new Muppet sequels  in the works -- Dark Crystal, The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time --and about the long gestating detective comedy, The Happytime Murders.

Brian has been attached to direct the noir-style puppet comedy from a script by Too Berger since it was first announced in Oct. '08. But what wasn't really known then, was just how "balls-out" it would be.

Brian explained:

We’re trying to make a Dark Crystal sequel, but that will take a long time. As for Henson Alternative, we have a few puppet shows for late night that we’re developing, maybe for someplace like Comedy Central or HBO, and two or three movies as well. One movie is really far along in development. I can’t discuss the studio, but the working title is The Happytime Murders. It’s about a puppet private eye in Hollywood in a world in which puppets are a minority population and treated badly. It’s a gritty crime thriller and a satire of the genre and a balls-out comedy. And it’ll be rated R.

That would be amazing! We've seen adult-themed parodies of The Muppets before, on The Simpsons, Family Guy, and countless YouTube videos syncing Muppet clips to R-Rated movies and profane rap songs. But don't expect to see familiar Muppets like Kermit getting noir and smoking cigs in the rain, since the iconically kid-friendly characters are Disney-owned. But Brian revealed that he will help in some capacity on the new Muppet Movie starring and written by Jason Segel, and that his father had long intended for The Muppets to make their home at Disney:

It was my father’s dream to put the Muppets in the Disney theme parks — that’s how he thought they would stay alive forever — so the deal was done to complete that vision. As for the movie, Disney is very protective of the Muppets and they move slowly and carefully. They intend to respect and maintain the Muppet tone so they will live on wonderfully. I may consult on the movie, but I won’t be on the set. I act a bit as a technical adviser and tell them whom to hire — they’ll work with a lot of people my dad and I worked with.

As we reported last month, The Henson Company acquired the rights to the Jim Henson biopic The Muppet Man, that contains often fictionalized or exaggerated depictions of Henson's life played out by Muppets. While it had seemed Disney and The Henson company had come to an agreement on the film and were moving forward, Brian stayed pretty tight lipped on the subject:

I can’t really comment in detail on that. There was a spec script and we optioned it, but while discussions are going on it is not active right now.

A live "adults only" improv show, a new Muppet Movie, a Dark Crystal sequel, a Fraggle Rock movie, a Henson biopic, and an R-Rated detective movie all in the works... it's a great time to be a puppet, or at least a puppeteer.

To read the full interview click on over to NYMag.

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