While most people associate The Jim Henson Company with “Rainbow Connection,” Kermit the Frog, and a wholesome sunniness, some of the new projects that the puppet dream machine are a little saltier. In an interview with Uproxx last year, Brian Henson, son of Jim Henson, mentioned a few that he was trying to get off the ground, including an R-rated puppet and live action film. From the looks of things, that dream is about to become a reality.
According to Deadline, Jamie Foxx is about to board the project, entitled The Happytime Murders. The premise sounds more than a little insane:
The story follows puppet stars of an iconic TV show The Happytime Gang who are some of the biggest celebrities around. But off-camera, the family-friendly cast leads the kinds of lives that would make a tabloid writer blush. When the Happytime Gang stars begin to be mysteriously murdered, two mismatched detectives – one a type-A, take-no-prisoners human with a secret and the other a crass, hard-drinking puppet with a connection to one of the victims – must put aside their differences to stop the killings and catch the culprit, all the while trying to resist the temptation to murder each other.
Foxx would play Detective Edwards, the human half of the odd couple. Brian Henson will direct, and it will be his first feature film since 1996’s Muppet Treasure Island. There is something hilarious about the anachronistic shock of seeing puppets behave badly (proven by Avenue Q), so this project’s development is definitely one to keep an eye on.
(Via Deadline)
