The trailer for The Muppets was a bit underwhelming, but it was written by and stars Jason Segel, so I’m hoping for the best. For awhile it looked like a film version of Jim Henson‘s even-weirder Fraggle Rock might happen. And then it wasn’t happening. The last time we heard anything was from Hoodwinked writer/director Cory Edwards, who seemed to be butting heads with the Weinsteins over his vision of an “older-skewing, edgier movie,” (which actually sounds awesome, since Fraggle Rock was always one of the strangest damn things I remember from my childhood). This was apparently the last word:
There’s nothing to report except that The Weinstein Company has everything they need to move forward, and the ball is in their court. They’ve talked about getting a new writer, which I’m willing to do. They’ve talked about starting over from scratch, which I’m willing to do. But I have not heard a peep from their camp in almost a year.
/Film uncovered from Celluloid and Cigarette Burns that not only is the movie not dead, but it will feature original songs by Jake Shears and Babydaddy, members of the disco/glam rock group The Scissor Sisters. No, seriously. The creators of Take Your Mama appear to be on board to contribute new music for a Fraggle Rock feature.
And that’s all we have, at the moment. It appears that the Sisters are not completely anomalous to the Henson world, having designed stage shows for them in the past. According to Mark Fried of Spirit Music (The Scissor Sisters’s music publisher):
By working with them [Henson] right from the very start it means that we can make music an integral part of the film; as important and as emotionally effective as the filmmaking – helping the two to co-promote each other.
There’s no casting news and nothing new from Edwards, but the only thing friggin’ weirder than a Muppets movie written by Jason Segel is a Fraggle Rock movie scored by The Scissor Sisters, so let’s hope this thing comes together.
What do think of this bizarro news? Does Fraggle Rock hold a special, funky place in your heart?