New News on the New Muppet Movie!

Earlier this week, Collider.com released an article packed with some new information on the upcoming Muppet movie that will soon be going into production at Disney. We revealed last week that filming will begin in January in London and that the film will be a European caper. We also know that Academy Award-winner Christophe Waltz is in talks to star in the film as an interpol inspector chasing the Muppets and The Muppets director James Bobin will be back to direct the sequel with a script by Bobin and The Muppets co-writer Nicholas Stoller. Let's take a look at what the Collider article adds to what we already know...

• Filming will run from January to April at Pinewood Studios in London.
• Bret McKenzie is returning to write new songs for the movie.
• There might be new Muppets in the movie. Collider assumes that might means definitely, and wonders how many new ones we'll see.
• More major casting announcements will be coming soon.
• Tentative release date of DECEMBER 20, 2013 (unconfirmed)

So what does all of this mean for us? Well... mostly great things. First of all, we know that they're dedicating four months of shooting in London, which should provide us with some awesome locations for the film. Perhaps the most exciting news to come from this is that Bret McKenzie is back to write new songs! This is obviously exciting because it means the movie will be a musical once again, but also because Bret's songs in The Muppets are fantastic (just ask the Academy Awards), and having him return is a brilliant move. Bret will join Paul Williams as one of only two songwriters to write for more than one Muppet film. (Paul Williams wrote the songs for The Muppet Movie and The Muppet Christmas Carol, of course.)

We'll also get major casting announcements soon, which could be huge. I have a feeling that Disney is looking for another big-name, Jason Segel/Amy Adams type to headline the film alongside the Muppets, so that could be extremely exciting. Previous news items revealed that the movie is looking to cast a Russian femme fatale and a leading man whose intentions are always in question. I don't know about you, but I would love to see a Scarlet Johansson type in the role of the femme fatale and someone like Neil Patrick Harris (or please, please, please just cast Neil Patrick Harris) as the leading man. Who would you like to see in these roles?

As for the release date, from what I know that is absolutely not set in stone or even official. I believe the only source confirming that date is IMDB, which is not known for having reputable information often. Sometimes, yes, but not often. So until we hear official news from Disney, I wouldn't get too excited about the December 20th date... but I also wouldn't be at all surprised if the film was released in that time frame.

So there you have it, Muppet fans! What do you think of these developments in the new Muppet movie? Who would you like to see cast in the film? What sort of new Muppets would you like to see, if any?

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com