Good news for anyone who likes, puppets, serial killers or puppets and serial killers: Happytime Murders**, which will feature creations from the Jim Henson Company in a noir detective story, has now been picked up by Lionsgate, which should mean that director Brian Henson and his team have a proper chance of getting it made.
Todd Berger’s script was nabbed as a spec back in 2008 by the Henson company, which has been developing it ever since.
Henson and sister Lisa – both the non-puppet creations of Jim himself – plan to produce the film, which blends Avenue Q with LA Confidential. Happytime grounds us in a world where humans and puppets live side by side, albeit with the puppets as second-class citizens. The furry cast of once-popular kids’ show The Happytime Gang are being picked off one by one, and the only ones who can figure out who’s behind the deaths are a drunken, washed-up private eye puppet and his former LAPD partner, a human being.
While Lionsgate’s involvement doesn’t guarantee it’ll get a greenlight, we’re just keeping our fingers crossed, as this could conceivably be the most daring fun with felt since a young director named Peter Jackson unleashed Meet The Feebles on the world.