The New Muppets Film Now Titled 'The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time'

James Bobin's promising film directorial debut has got a name change, 'The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made' is now 'The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time'. Some details about the Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller ambitiously titled Muppet script have been revealed by the good folks over at theplaylist:

“The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time is about Gary, Mary, and Walter (a man, his girlfriend, and the man’s life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend) getting the old Muppet gang - now retired entertainers known for the same Muppet show we know them from - together to save the TV studio that the original show was shot in. A villain, Tex Richman (nice name, on par with Doc Hopper), bent on drilling for oil underneath the studio, is due to take over the studio in weeks, and the only way to stop him? Putting on a show that draws ten million viewers.

“It’s a solid attempt at recapturing what made The Muppet Show and the first two Muppet movies so great, but The Great Muppet Movie of All Time is no Great Muppet Caper - Caper being to the first Muppets film, what The Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars - but it is a fresh, younger approach. Stoller and Segel have fun with the characters, are aware of what made the Muppet early years so great (winks to the audience, friendly musical numbers, single gag repetition, friendship and togetherness being the answer to everything), and hit the mark 65% of the time. We’re hoping the songs (the majority of which were missing from the script) help elevate the script from a harmless Muppet flick to a more memorable one, but there’s more work to be done first. But what their script lacks (oddly enough, this being a Muppet movie and all) is forward pulse. The Muppet Movie is about a frog’s drive to get to Hollywood and the people he meets along the way and the friendships he makes.”

UPDATE: George Clooney, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Chris Rock, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Mel Brooks, Matt Damon, Norah Jones and Sarah Jessica Parker are all expected to have small cameos in the film.

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