As always, I’m a sucker for anything Muppets, and as we wait patiently for The Muppets to hit theaters, we’re lucky to have a fun marketing campaign treating us with parody posters. The latest set are Twilight spoofs with Kermit playing the role of Vamphibian, Miss Piggy as Bella Swine (which is really damn funny, unless your inner child is dead) and Rowlf as WereRowlf. If you think about it, Miss Piggy really is the perfect Twihard, too.

The new posters join the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo spoof poster that we got a kick out of, as well as the standard posters that just remind us how awesome the Muppets are. Not to mention the trailer and most recent clip that introduces the new Muppet, Walter, too. I think the only way that Disney could ruin all of this Muppets marketing is if Statler and Waldorf turned out to be Penn State boosters.

Read the rest of this entry »

(Click to enlarge. If you dare.)

This Week in Posters: Twilight, The Muppets, horrible Brett Ratner posters, when diagonals attack, PLUS — VAMPIRE DOG!

This Poster: Holy hell, that is the gayest Mervyn’s ad I’ve ever seen. Ever noticed how these movies are creepy for all the wrong reasons? Like, you can tell they’re going for goth-vampire creepy, but really they’re just dinner-with-conservative-relatives creepy? I was scrolled all the way to the right on my screen, thinking Fruitcake Cullen over there trying to look hard in a purple scarf (to say nothing of the Anne Taylor sweater and wallet chain) was the gayest thing I’d ever seen. But then I scrolled back to the left and saw Kellen Lutz looking gayer than I could even believe. “Hey, Bro, does my see-through sweater match my big leather wrist cuff?”

You know how some 50s sci-fi movies are cool because they’re this antiquated idea of what the future would be like? Twilight is kind of like that, but more like “hip goth” as filtered through this dowdy Midwestern woman.  Also, I don’t know which Hollywood costume designer I can talk to about this, but being comically overaccessorized does not make you more important. I think this is somehow Johnny Depp’s fault.

Read the rest of this entry »

OK Go made a video for their version of the Muppet Theme song from the Muppet Green Album (which was released today, and is less disappointing than Weezer’s Green Album, hopefully). You can watch it below, but let’s not kid each other, we both know it’s going to be cute as sh*t. I don’t know how those silly little puppets manage to be so consistently adorable. Is Andy Serkis inside there? God, what an actor.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Muppets opens in November, and stars Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, plus rumored cameos from pretty much every actor you’ve ever heard of, with James Bobin directing a script by Jason Segel and Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nick Stoller. And now there’s a trailer, yay!

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds. To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.

I could try to put my reaction to this teaser into words, but I think Tom Brady on a waterslide sums it up nicely:

Read the rest of this entry »

Good news, folks.  Happytime Murders, a spec script I told you about back in 2008, has been picked up by Lionsgate and will be produced by Jim Henson’s offspring, Brian Henson and his sister Lisa.  Why is that good news? Well, it’s being described as Avenue Q meets L.A. Confidential.  Tell me this doesn’t sound awesome:

Written by Todd Berger from a story by Dee Austin Robertson and Berger, the story takes place in a world where humans and puppets co-exist, with the puppets viewed as second-class citizens. When the puppet cast of an ’80s children’s TV show called “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 on the case.

Lionsgate’s acquisition gives the risky project — a dark and adult story featuring puppets — a real shot at getting made, with insiders talking of a possible January start, depending on how soon a star can be found for the lead.[THR]

Hell and yes.  A puppet with a drinking problem is a brilliant idea, and in my case, it sounds practically autobiographical.  “Oh hello there, Mr. Hand.  You know if you keep feeding me drinks, I’m liable to become rather intoxicated.”  “Ha, that was my plan all along — get you tipsy enough to let me jerk you off. “  “Aw, I love you drunken hand puppet.”  (*drunken masturbating to fade out*)

[picture via JuliaSegal]