Where The Wild Things Aren't

There's trouble brewing in post-production on Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are.

I don't know if you've heard or not yet, but Spike Jonze is directing a film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are featuring puppets and hybrid animatronic/CG characters from Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Spy reports from early screenings have indicated that the movie is a dark, brilliant and extremely faithful adaptation of the classic Maurice Sendak book, so naturally Warner Brothers is rumoured to want to either extensively reshoot it, or scrap the movie altogether and start over.

I really hope Warner doesn't mess with the movie. Chances are they're looking for a fuzzy (or at least Harry Potter-esque) family movie and didn't get it, which begs the question why did they hire Spike Jonze to direct in the first place? Oh well, at least Forest Whitaker's kids liked it.

Via I Watch Stuff.

Rest in Peace Anthony Minghella

Director Anthony Minghella has passed away at the age of 54.

I just read the sad news that filmmaker Anthony Minghella has died. He is best known for directing films like The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain and won a Best Director Oscar for The English Patient, but got one of his first big breaks working for the Jim Henson Company. Minghella was credited with writing every episode of Jim Henson's groundbreaking Storyteller series and also wrote other Henson projects like Greek Myths and Living With Dinosaurs. The world has lost a unique and very talented filmmaker.

SUDS: Simian Undercover Detective Squad

"SUDS" is the latest offering from the Henson Company's grown-up Henson Alternative brand.

It looks like the latest project from The Jim Henson Company's "Henson Alternative" brand is SUDS. "SUDS" is an acronym for Simian Undercover Detective Squad, which - as the Tough Pigs point out - for better or worse tells you just about everything you need to know about SUDS. The web series will debut on Film.com in 2008 and a teaser trailer is available to watch on Film.com. You can also download the latest episode of the Henson.com podcast and listen to interviews with SUDS' producer-directors Perry Sachs and Deb Loftis and stars Paul Rugg and Zand Broumand.

SUDS is the first of three web series Henson has in the works for Film.com. According to The Muppet Newsflash, in addition to SUDS Henson is also preparing ten new episodes of Puppet Up! - Uncensored and 15 episodes of a puppet-based reality-show parody called Alt-Reality.

Del's Vegas Comedy Binge

The Henson Company is launching another adult-oriented project at TBS.com; Del's Vegas Comedy Binge features Del Kastle - a puppet character from the 2006 Henson/TBS pilot The Late Night Buffet (see previous post) - in a new series of webisodes. Posted so far are five videos of Del at the recent Comedy Festival in Las Vegas.

Via The Muppet Newsflash.

More Skrumps Stuff

The Skrumps are featured in a bunch of new content on Yahoo Kids.

This is kind of old news, but there's some new-ish content featuring the Henson Company's digital puppetry characters The Skrumps (see previous post) available on Yahoo Kids. The new material includes four new Skrumps videos, ecards and a few other downloadable goodies. Also, The Muppet Newsflash recently posted an interview with Victor Yerrid, who is one of the puppeteers working on The Skrumps.

Cross-posted from Machin-X: Digital Puppetry.

Henson Co. News From Comicon

Comicon wrapped up last weekend in San Diego and The Jim Henson Company was there with a booth promoting several different projects including The Skrumps (see previous post) and a new project called Tinseltown, "about a bull named Samson Knight and a pig named Bobby Vegan, a mismatched gay couple living in Hollywood," that is apparently being developed as a web series. They also did a special Puppet Up presentation, a portion of which you can watch on YouTube.

Interview with Puppeteer Julianne Buescher

Julianne Buescher recently did an interview with The Muppet Newsflash blog.

The Muppet Newsflash has posted a new interview with puppeteer Julianne Buescher, best known for her work on oodles of Henson and Muppet projects including Puppet Up. It's a great read and you can check it out here.

In addition to Julianne's interview there are also interviews with Muppet writer Jim Lewis and Sesame Street cast member Alan Muraoka posted as well.

Cross-posted from Machin-X: Digital Puppetry.

Classic Muppet Advertising - Sir Linit

Sir Linit and his spray come to the rescue of a Housewife's laundry in this classic 1960s Muppet ad.

Here's another fantastic vintage Henson commercial. This is one of four ads that Muppets, Inc. produced for Linit Fabric Finish in 1966. The ad features a talking spray-can knight named Sir Linit, performed by Jim Henson. Watch how carefully this is edited to allow the puppet to do different things. Today it would be pretty easy to do a commercial like this using green screen and puppeteer/wire removal techniques, but in the 1960s things were lower tech and required some innovation and carefully planned shots.

Link via Pidgeon Blog.

Henson Co. Gets More Animated

The TAG Blog reports that the Henson Company is diving deeper in to animation. Henson is partnering with the Weinstein Brothers to produce three new animated direct-to-video features called "Unstable Fables" - Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs and Tortoise and The Hare.

Henson put out a press release about this a few days ago. Here's a quote:

"As The Jim Henson Company continues to expand further into animation, we are thrilled to have such supportive enthusiasm from The Weinstein Company," said Lisa Henson, co-CEO of The Jim Henson Company and a producer of the home video series. "Producing this series with gifted creative partners like Prana and Flame allows us to maintain the highest standards of quality expected from a Jim Henson Company production and make it available to a home video audience."

These don't appear to be digital puppetry features like Henson's Skrumps property since the animation is being outsourced to an off-shore firm called Prana Studios in India. It should be interesting to watch this develop and see what comes of it.

Remembering Jim Henson

Jim Henson (seen above with the head of Junior Gorg from Fraggle Rock) died seventeen years ago today at the age of 53.

Puppeteers and Muppet fans around the world today are remembering Jim Henson, who died seventeen years ago today. May 16th has become a sort of unofficial day of remembrance for Jim and if you aren't already familiar with the man's life, work and legacy (though I suspect most of you reading this already are) you can learn more about it at:

• The Jim Henson Legacy - Dedicated to preserving and perpetuating Jim Henson’s contributions to the worlds of puppetry, television, motion pictures, special effects and media technology.
  
• The Jim Henson Foundation - Founded in 1983, this non-profit organization annually gives out grant to support the creation of new works of contemporary American puppet theater.
  
• Muppet Central - The internet's biggest Muppet fan site.
  
• The Muppet Wiki - An amazingly comprehensive (over 14,000 article as of this writing) online encylopedia devoted to Jim Henson, his characters and the Henson Company.

I recently blogged about an interesting video interview Jim recorded just shortly before his death.

Puppet Up! Uncensored Debuts on TBS.com

Puppet Up! Uncensored debuts on TBS.com today. Two episodes are online now and new videos will be debuting every Wednesday. If you're a Digg user and want to help the show reach a wider online audience you can help out and Digg It!

If you like the show and are lucky enough to live down under, Puppet Up! is going to be in Australia for almost a month. Details are available at the Puppet Up! web site.

Thanks to Seth for the news!

Muppet Movie Director James Frawley Interview

Director James Frawley and his Muppet doppelgänger in 1979.

Last Friday SFGate ran an interview with Muppet Movie director James Frawley about his work on the film. In it he shares a number of interesting stories, including his thoughts on the film's ground breaking puppetry work and how directing The Monkees helped him get the job.

Thanks to Steve for the great link!

Henson Company Developing a Film with Brad Peyton

I had already heard the news that the Henson Company is developing three book based films - The Boggart, The Doubtful Guest, and Monster Blood Tattoo - but I somehow missed the little detail that they were developing The Doubtful Ghost with Canadian producer/director Brad Peyton, who directed Evelyn The Cutest Little Dead Girl. Brad's an alumni of The Canadian Film Centre, Canada's premiere film school. I think Henson made a very smart choice deciding to work with Brad. He's got a unique, Tim Burton-esque sensibility and should be able to do some great things with the help of The Creature Shop.

Via Brian Stokes' blog.

Puppet Up! on the Henson.com Podcast

The puppeteers of Henson's Puppet Up! improv company.

The latest installment of the Henson.com podcast is available and features the cast of Henson's Puppet Up improv puppet troupe discussing how the group got started and their upcoming tour of Australia. They are also playing a special one night only gig March 4th in Anaheim and TBS.com plans to offer up Puppet Up! web videos later this year.

For more info on Puppet Up! and their upcoming performances visit the Puppet Up! web site.

The New Tough Pigs

Remember Tough Pigs? The grown-up site for adult "Muppet fans with attitude" was a staple of the Muppet fan community on the web for years until it stopped updating about a year ago. The lack of updates was mainly because chief Tough Pig Danny Horn was preoccupied with, among other things, the Muppet Wiki project. But now Tough Pigs is back better than ever with Danny and several of the key Muppet Wiki contributors updating the site almost daily. The site even has a handy RSS feed now that you can subscribe to.

So if you like your Muppets with a dash of attitude and a side order of funny go take a look at the brand new Tough Pigs site.

The Skrumps: Behind The Scenes

A new video on Henson.com takes you behind the scenes of The Skrumps.

Henson.com has posted a behind-the-scenes video about the making of The Skrumps, their new digital puppetry characters (see previous post). It's fairly short, but gives you a nice overview of the Henson Digital Performance System and how their digital studio works.

Thanks to C.B. for the alert!

Henson debuts The Skrumps

The Jim Henson Company is developing a new animated property called The Skrumps, based on a line of colourful, monster-like toy characters created by artist John Chandler. The series is being produced using the Henson Digital Performance System and looks very promising. John Chandler, Skrumps puppeteer Victor Yerrid and Henson's head of Children's Programming Halle Stanford discuss The Skrumps and their development in the latest episode of the Henson.com podcast.

The Skrumps debuted today in four new videos available at Yahoo! Kids for a limited time. Be sure to take a look!

Cross-posted from Machin-X: Digital Puppetry.

Pretty Fly for Some English Guys

Puppeteer Mike Quinn with Thomas Dolby on the set of The Ghost of Faffner Hall in the 1980s.

Music legend Thomas Dolby and a fly performed by puppeteer Mike Quinn explain how synthesizers work in this rare clip from an episode of the late 1980s Jim Henson series The Ghost of Faffner Hall. Mike has some more behind-the-scenes photos from the shoot online here.

Puppet Up! tonight on TBS

The cast of Jim Henson's Puppet Up! perform in a special on TBS tonight.

Just a reminder that Jim Henson's Puppet Up! (see previous post) airs tonight at 11 p.m. EST on TBS. Tonight's special should be blast and there's even more Puppet Up improv fun coming your way because TBS has announced that they are producing 30 online episodes of Puppet Up!

Sadly I don't get TBS here in Mexico so if any PuppetVision readers out there are taping the special tonight and can help me out, well that would be fantastic! My email is puppetvision [at] gmail dot com.

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21/11/06 Update: The New York Times has a great, related article on the more adult-oriented direction the Henson Company is taking.

Jim Henson Company Halloween Party

Staff from the Jim Henson Recording Studio get their toga on with some mummies at the Henson Company's recent Halloween party.

The Jim Henson Company has what is probably the coolest lot in Hollywood, so it follows that they seem to throw the most creative Halloween party too. Sean Johnson has posted a gallery of pics from the Henson Company's recent Halloween party. The picture of best costume winners Brian Henson and Dopey is absolutely priceless!