A long-awaited project for the Jim Henson Company is finally taking a step toward production: Muppet Man, a biopic of puppeteering legend Jim Henson (The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth), has a writer aboard to pen a script about Henson’s remarkable career.
This news comes from Deadline, which reports playwright and screenwriter Michael Mitnick (The Current War, The Giver) is going to write the live-action Muppet Man for Disney and the Jim Henson Company. The film, to be produced by Henson’s daughter Lisa Henson, will focus “on Henson’s journey to convince broadcasters that The Muppets was a great idea and how he worked to get the characters on air where they became a comedy staple.”
Henson passed away in 1990 but left behind a treasured legacy that’s still a cultural touchstone today; Disney, which has owned the rights to the Muppets characters since 2004, recently made nearly every episode of the classic Muppet Show available to stream on Disney+, and the many Muppet-starring movies continue to be popular.
So far there’s no word on who might direct — or, perhaps most importantly, who’ll play a young Henson.