The Hollywood Reporter says Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones are close to signing on to the new Muppets movie written by Muppet fans Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. Buddies Segel and Stoller collaborated on Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Segel wrote the film, Stoller directed it) and its sequel Get Him to the Greek (Stoller directed and Segel wrote some of the songs and created the characters), and are working on Five-Year Engagement (currently in the 'script' stage). They also co-wrote the new Muppet movie, which may or may not be titled The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made, with Segel also set to take on one of the live-action characters.Details are sketchy but the story will apparently find the Muppets fighting to save their old studio. If their deals go through, Adams will play Segel's girlfriend, Cooper will play a villain, and Jones will play an executive at ABC, according to THR.
Stoller's a lifelong Muppets fan and in our exclusive interview back when he was promoting Forgetting Sarah Marshall, he told me how much it means to be able to make a Muppets movie. "I've just loved puppets since I was a little kid. I remember watching the old Muppet Show and seeing like Peter Sellers on there and Dudley Moore, and thinking, 'This is what I want to do when I get older.' And so I've had Muppet and puppets in my house my whole life, and so when I got to do [Forgetting Sarah Marshall] and have the Henson Company design our puppets, it was truly a dream come true. And then to parlay that into writing the new Muppet movie with Nick the director is basically, it's a little boy's dream come true."
James Bobin (The Flight of the Conchords) will direct the movie which is set up at Disney. Filming is expected to begin this November with Disney hoping for a December 2011 release.
Also of Interest:
- 1979's The Muppet Movie ranks 5th on our Top 10 Movies Based on TV Shows list
- Nicholas Stoller on the new Muppet film
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