Lionsgate picks up Happytime Murders, a film where muppets kill and drink booze!

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Here’s a super-bizarre, terribly cool idea that will probably fail miserably in execution. But, until then, we can dream. The Jim Henson Company is putting together a comedy/noir hybrid, pushing its stable of Muppets into more adult territory and Lionsgate has just picked up that idea. HAPPYTIME MURDERS is a comedy/thriller that is being written by Todd Berger. The film wil also be (drumroll)…directed by Brian Henson. If you didn’t know, Brian Henson is the son of Jim Henson, the man who made weekday mornings tolerable for kids.

HAPPYTIME MURDERS was actually something that was being talked about years ago (2008 to be exact) and has since then been only a laughable concept. It seems Lionsgate didn’t laugh too hard when they signed a deal on the film’s production. It’s going down, folks.

So what the heck is HAPPYTIME MURDERS all about?

Happytime  takes place in a world where humans and puppets coexist, with the puppets viewed as second-class citizens. When the puppet cast of 1980s children’s TV show “The Happytime Gang” begins to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet — with a drinking problem, no less — takes the case with his former human partner.Think Avenue Q meets L.A. Confidential.

Todd Berger, the scribe, also wrote the story with Dee Ausin Robertson. What started as a spec script back in 2008 is actually starting to make some waves in 2010…only to be most likely killed before the end of the year. Here’s hoping that it won’t. There is a bit of bright news that will prevent it from going back into Developmental Hell again. Lionsgate picked up the project so it means that it has some value in it. There are people who are talking about the film starting in January so if this is a project that’s making you do the happy dance then you (can stop now) can expect this project to build up steam as a lead actor/actress is announced soon.