For the better part of a decade, Brian Henson, son of legendary puppeteer Jim Henson, a puppeteer in his own right, and director of THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL and MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND, has been trying to get a movie called THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS made. We've reported on the project here several times before, and there have been times when its chances have looked quite good. It has been set up at Lionsgate, Cameron Diaz has been offered a role, Katherine Heigl was in final negotiations to join the cast at one point. Then it all fell apart. For years, it seemed like we might have heard the last of THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS. But now it's back, revived by STX Entertainment.
Despite Henson's Muppet background, THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS is definitely not a kid-friendly concept. It sounds like a mixture of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? and Peter Jackson's MEET THE FEEBLES, and everyone involved says it's a given that the movie is going to be rated R.
The story:
The puppet stars of the iconic TV show The Happytime Gang are some of the biggest celebrities around. But off-camera, the family-friendly cast leads the kinds of lives that would make a tabloid writer blush. When the Happytime Gang stars begin to be mysteriously murdered, two mismatched detectives – one a type-A, take-no-prisoners human with a secret and the other a crass, hard-drinking puppet with a connection to one of the victims – must put aside their huge differences to stop the killings and catch the culprit, all the while trying to resist the temptation to murder each other.
Henson will be directing from a screenplay by Todd Berger and Dee Robertson, with revisions by RED/RED 2 writers Erich and Jon Hoeber.
I hope THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS will actually get through production this time, because the world is in desperate need of more puppet movies that feature death and debauchery.
Mary-Louise Parker of RED & RED 2
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