From cinemablend, The Muppets are back, and the incredibly heavy mantle of Jim Henson has fallen to… Jason Segel? That’s the word from Variety where they say the Forgetting Sarah Marshall writer and star will team up with his Forgetting Sarah Marshall director to script a completely new Muppet movie for Disney. Once it’s done, Stoller will direct.
This isn’t as out of left field as it sounds. Once you see Forgetting Sarah Marshall it’ll make sense. Puppets actually figure pretty prominently into the movie, and the film ends with a big puppet musical number, with Jason playing puppeteer to a singing Dracula character (who bears more than a passing resemblance to Sesame Street’s The Count). Believe it or not, it’s stupendous. The guy obviously knows what he’s doing with a piece of felt on his hand, and it was that experience in Sarah Marshall which gave Segel the confidence necessary to make a Muppets pitch to Disney.
Segel’s also on his way to becoming one hell of a writer. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is hilarious, thanks in no small part to his script. Segel also wrote a lot of the songs in Marshall, and his acting career has always involved music in one way or another. In a truly surreal way, Segel is a natural fit for this. The Muppets are back, and they’re in the hands of Judd Apatow’s new star pupil. Nobody will ever be able to do what Jim Henson did, but as a fan I’m weirdly excited to see what’ll happen when Segel gets his hand and his head up inside Kermit.
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