The Muppets are coming back (yay!), this we know. This past weekend, we caught up with Jason Segel, who'll be co-writing the new movie, about what to expect from the glorious return. CHUD revealed earlier this week that the movie will concern the felt-based gang trying to save The Muppet Show from evil types who wish to bring about it's end, but Segel also had a few more details to share.
"It's a classic story," he says. "It's the Muppets needing to get back together to save the show...It's going to take place all over the world. Basically, the Muppets are no longer together. So that might take a while to film. I guess they've set the precedent in that last movie (Muppets From Space) that Gonzo is, in fact, an alien, so he could well end up in space. That guy's all over the place!"
Segel says that he's "about halfway through writing the script with Nick (Stoller)" and that he's already hoping to get some of his buddies into the cast.
"I'm hoping there'll be cameos from our group of people (Segel is a part of the ever-growing Judd Apatow collective, who produced his new film Forgetting Sarah Marshall)," he continues. "I think that might be what makes it work. It's not going to be raunchy like our movies though! Every time I bring it up with somebody - Mila Kunis, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen – they say, 'Oh my god, you're writing me a part'. So I don't think there'll be trouble casting. I would love to star in it myself. I think that's the plan, but right now it's just a script deal".
We really like the idea of the Muppets being spread across the globe in their later days. There are hints of Muppets Take Manhattan to it, but this sounds a lot bigger, almost the flipside to what happened in that movie. There's a lot of scope in the idea – it's easy to imagine Kermit back in his swamp; Piggy as a fading star; Fozzie as a Rupert Pupkin-esque failing comic.
Admission: We should have had this up earlier this week, but there was a whole tape problem and then stuff happened and it all got a bit...oh leave us alone.