Let me say this right now I LOVE The Muppets!!!! I remember waking up at 6:30am when I was little so I could sit in front of the TV and watch The Muppet Show. I grew up watching the wonderful Muppet movies (The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan) and even had a few Muppet toys. (I also love the word Muppet and will randomly blurt it out as my wife can attest) But over the years the Muppet movies dwindled in quality and I slowly stopped watching them, just living on my nostalgia for the old days of muppet glory.

But now theres a new hope for Muppet lovers and his name is Jason Segel. Best known for his roles in tv shows like Freaks & Geeks and How I Met Your Mother and raunchy big screen comedies like Knocked Up and the upcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which he also co-wrote. While Segel may seem an unlikely person to champion the Muppets, he recently inked a deal with Disney to write a new muppet movie, with Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nick Stoller.

Now details are slowly starting to leak out, as Segel is more than willing to talk to anyone, and seemingly everyone about his plans for the film. Segel told ComingSoon.net ecstatically that working on the new Muppets movie was "hilarious, fantastic, heart-wrenching, beautiful, nostalgic and remarkable." Asked if he was a big fan of the show he continued "I just remember being 10 years old and for me Kermit was Tom Hanks. Kermit is like the original every man and I remember watching the old Muppet with my parents and seeing Peter Sellers and people like that on. I've always had Muppet pictures and figurines all through my house. Now that I'm getting to write it, I feel like all if my dreams are coming true."

Chud.com was able to get a bit of information about the plot, which matches up with a new interview from Empire Magazine released today. Chud says that "Apparently their Muppet film is going to be incredibly old fashioned, with the familiar Muppet characters putting on a show to save an old theater (the theater from The Muppet Show?). The danger? An evil character wants to tear the place down to get at the oil underneath."

Jason told Empire ""It's a classic story, It's the Muppets needing to get back together to save the show...It's going to take place all over the world. Basically, the Muppets are no longer together. So that might take a while to film. I guess they've set the precedent in that last movie (Muppets From Space) that Gonzo is, in fact, an alien, so he could well end up in space. That guy's all over the place!"

Segel says that he's "about halfway through writing the script with Nick (Stoller)" and that he's already hoping to get some of his buddies (from the Apatow Crew) into the cast. Something I was hoping for back when the project was announced. "I'm hoping there'll be cameos from our group of people," he continues. "I think that might be what makes it work. It's not going to be raunchy like our movies though! Every time I bring it up with somebody - Mila Kunis, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen – they say, 'Oh my god, you're writing me a part'. So I don't think there'll be trouble casting. I would love to star in it myself. I think that's the plan, but right now it's just a script deal".
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This new Muppet movie is taking shape very quickly and could possibly be Segel's next project. Let's hope that means we'll see it soon, I know personally I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Labels: Jason Segel, Muppets