Jim Henson — for whom we have to thank for The Muppets, Fraggle Rock and many of the Sesame Street characters — is set to be the subject of an upcoming biopic, which will be written by Michael Mitnick.
Titled Muppet Man, the film will delve into Henson’s life and career, in particular, his persistence in getting The Muppets on air where they became the stuff of comedy legend.
Henson’s daughter, Lisa, will produce the live-action project for The Jim Henson Company.
The multi-disciplined entertainment giant first developed the earliest iterations of the beloved Muppets in the 1950s which eventually led to a series of guest appearances on commercials and network talk and variety shows — including Sesame Street — before the characters finally got their own sketch series in 1976.
The Muppet Show ran for five seasons and spawned 1979s The Muppet Movie.
Henson, who was also the creative genius behind Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, passed away in 1990 at the age of 53.
It’s not the first time the idea of a Henson biopic has been floated, with a script written by Christopher Weekes purchased by The Henson Company in 2009. Disney has owned the rights to the Muppets since 2004, and most recently gave them a Disney+ series, Muppets Now.
As conversations around how to deal with content that is problematic for today’s climate have grown in frequency and fervour, the streaming platform announced it would be adding a content disclaimer to 18 episodes of The Muppet Show.
Reads the disclaimer, “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”
The reason for the need for such a disclaimer varies between episodes — in one, Johnny Cash can be seen singing in front of a confederate flag, for example.
So far there has been no word on who might play the revered puppeteer in the film or when it is scheduled for release.
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