Not to be dissuaded by the box office bomb that was “The Happytime Murders,” Warner Bros. is moving ahead with a new puppet movie. But with this film, the studio has some serious name recognition to go along with it. Variety is reporting that WB has signed Jonathan Krisel to helm a musical film based on the TV series “Sesame Street.”
That’s right, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, and the rest of the gang are moving to the big screen, courtesy of the guy who is probably best known for directing and producing “Portlandia.” While on paper, this seems like an odd coupling, we should mention that Disney found success when they adapted “The Muppets” into a film directed by James Bobin, from “Flight of the Conchords.”
There’s no word on the plot, but the report says the film is being developed as a musical, which makes perfect sense when looking at the source material. “Sesame Street” is a long-running educational children’s show on PBS that chronicles the lives of various characters that live on the titular road. Generations have been influenced by the characters and a film seems like a no-brainer.
Warner Bros. has been pushing hard for a feature film version of “Sesame Street” since sister-company HBO struck a deal with Sesame Workshop in 2015.
As mentioned, Krisel is best known for his work on “Portlandia,” but he also directed series such as “Baskets,” “Ghosted,” “Man Seeking Woman,” and “Kroll Show.” So his comedy chops are not to be undersold. That being said, it’s interesting to see how his more adult-comedy sensibilities will translate to an audience of children.
There’s no anticipated release date for the film, but WB seems close to getting started on the film, so we’ll see how it all comes together and who the lucky star is they’ll sign to be opposite these colorful characters.