If you and your friends play Director Bingo and you have the square that said that Bo Burnham will follow up his critically-acclaimed feature writing/directing debut on “Eighth Grade” with a stint as a songwriter for the upcoming live-action “Sesame Street” film, then congratulations! For the rest of us, let that news sink in. And then imagine just how awesome a “Sesame Street” movie could be.
Deadline is reporting that Burnham has signed on to pen new, original music for the live-action “Sesame Street” film that is soon to go into production with director Jonathan Krisel and star Anne Hathaway. The film is said to follow the adventures of Big Bird and Co. as they get kicked out of their famous neighborhood and have to team up with a history show host to prove that Sesame Street exists, all while the evil Mayor attempts to hide the neighborhood from the world.
For those not familiar with Burnham’s pre-“Eighth Grade” work, the filmmaker started his career as a stand-up comedy, who rose to prominence in the early days of YouTube. From there, he expanded his output with comedy specials on Comedy Central, which consisted of various parody songs that he wrote and performed on stage. So, even though you don’t get the songwriting history in his feature debut film, for many, he’s primarily known as the singing comedian guy.
In addition to his newfound role as music man for “Sesame Street,” Burnham also has a new teen comedy that he wrote and produced coming soon, as well as a starring role, opposite Carey Mulligan, in the film “Promising Young Woman.” However, for the latter film, Burnham is not a writer, director, or producer, instead focusing on the acting.
As of now, “Sesame Street” has a planned January 15, 2021 release date.