Jamie Foxx in talks for puppet mystery The Happytime Murders

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Last summer, STX Entertainment rescued Brian Henson's THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS from a long stint in development hell, and after nine months of silence we finally have a sign that the film might get made soon: Jamie Foxx is in early negotiations to star in it.

An R-rated mixture of live action and puppetry, THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS will tell the following 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.

If the deal is closed with Foxx, I assume he would be playing the take-no-prisoners human detective.

There have been a lot of ups and downs with THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS, so an actor being in talks doesn't mean it's definitely going to happen. At different points in its development Cameron Diaz was offered a part and Katherine Heigl was in final negotiations to take on a role. But here's hoping that it will make it into production this time.

Henson will be directing from a screenplay by Todd Berger and Dee Robertson, with revisions by Erich and Jon Hoeber.

Foxx and Diaz