Has anyone else heard about this? My son said he heard they were making a Fraggle Rock movie...and were suppose to be making "puppets/muppets" like the originals...who could possibly recreate anything like Jim Henson- that man was brilliant...nobody ever did anything like The Muppets ever. Isn't that sad that nobody else could ever come up with anything like that, but that one man was capable of doing so much...and he died young...just think how much more he could have done, had he lived.
Posted by 80'sRocked (Member # 6979) on :
Henson was one of a kind. I love The Dark Crystal which he co-directed and co-wrote with Frank Oz.
Posted by Chris the CandyFanMan (Member # 3197) on :
Currently the film version--reportedly our heroes venturing into Outer Space--is in development at The Weinstein Company. Ahmed Zappa is scripting, and the Henson family will produce it. I think it still be largely puppeted, and probably most of the original cast will return (and even if he doesn't feel up to performing the puppet, Jerry Nelson could easily loop Gobo's dialogue in during postproduction). Additionally, Empire Film Group has brought the rights to a biographical film about the man himself. Details are still vague at the moment, but they're said to be aiming for a release some time next year.
Yes, we the fans do have to wonder what might have been, had he gone to the hospital just a few hours earlier. From what I can ascertain, the conditions of the sale of the Jim Henson Company to the Walt Disney Company that was to have been finalized on the day he died (in which they've have gotten the rights to everything except the Sesame characters--a far more convenient arrangement than the muddled rights mess we have to slog through today), gave him autonomy to create his own projects, so probably another feature or two from his ever fertile imagination would have come to pass, along with maybe another couple Muppet features that could have been a little different than what we did get (not that I'm complaining, since Christmas Carol and Treasure Island are professionally handled). Perhaps even something completely not puppet or fantasy related that he intended to use to break out of typecasting as children's fare (he never did want that label, and fought it his whole life). We can only speculate and be glad we do have so much anyway. And of course, you may argue he never really left us, as long as all of us try to find our own Rainbow Connections.
Posted by Jessie the Sunflower Goddess (Member # 1877) on :
Oh I would definitely go and see this at the theater. I just hope that they would stick as close to the real one as possible.
Posted by Chris the CandyFanMan (Member # 3197) on :
Also Muppet fans may want the heads up that the primary characters are slated for a new Christmas special on NBC this year. "The Muppets: Letters to Santa" will feature Kermit and company rushing to deliver a trio of waylaid letters to the North Pole in time. Kirk Thatcher of Dinosaurs will direct, and delightfully Paul "Rainbow Connection" Williams will do the music. Among the announced special guests will be none other than Michael Bloomberg, in a bit where he'll apparently chew Piggy out for cutting in line at the post office. Let's hope it'll live up to the company's wonderful holiday tradition.
