News Update: November 1, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: November 1, 2012
Our friends at the campaign known as the Million Puppet March have asked us to share their campaign with Muppet fans. As you may know, the campaign is derived from Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney's promise to end funding to public broadcasting. The Million Puppet March is a march on Washington D.C. this Saturday, November 3rd. The campaign needs support and they have an indiegogo fundraiser going on now that you can donate to. You can find out all of the info you need at the official webpage for the Million Puppet March. Regardless of political affiliation, we just wanted to share the campaign for those interested.

Our friend Julian Kleibeler contacted us about sharing a video he made celebrating the Muppets and ABBA, titled "For the Love of ABBA and Whatnot." Check out what Julian had to say about the video, "It's an anniversary tribute music video combining Muppets and ABBA.  Unfortunately we weren't able to use the original song in our tribute; and we traveled to Zermatt, Switzerland, to make sure one of the members saw it, while being in talks with the group's manager, who showed it to yet another member in Sweden. Though both apparently liked it, their manager's stance remained that their general policies would not allow usage.

But we didn't let that discourage us, recycled this band's last original song's perfectly fitting working title, recomposed, rewrote the lyrics and made the whole film into a silent movie. Please make sure to watch it in HD for best quality and to notice all the little details (and ABBA song references). Also, if you follow the instructions provided at the end of the video, you'll get to try your hand on making the video into something more of what it was intended to be from the start."



Last week we showcased the official YouTube video track for the upcoming Cee Lo Green/Muppets holiday single: "All I Need is Love." As we mentioned, the Muppets performed the song with Cee Lo in Las Vegas a few weeks ago for part of his star-studded Christmas show. The show was filmed and prepared to air on television as well! The special will air on November 30th on the TV Guide Network, so set your TV recording devices accordingly!


Finally, in huge news, we have our first bit of information regarding the upcoming production of the newest Muppet movie! First and foremost, we can confirm, thanks to two extremely reliable sources, that the next Muppet film will begin filming in January!! We've also learned that The Muppets director James Bobin is confirmed to return to direct the next feature. This has been assumed for awhile, as Bobin co-wrote the script for the next film with The Muppets co-writer Nicholas Stoller. This news is monumental, as it tells us the script is done, Disney has signed off on it, and the casting process has begun.


Speaking of casting, we have the first bit of casting news from The Hollywood Reporter, who revealed late last night that Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained) is in talks to star in the film! The article says his role will be that of an Interpol inspector, one of a handful of non-cameo human roles in the film. The article also reveals some of the other human roles, a Russian femme fatale and a male lead whose intentions are always in question. Who would you most like to see playing these two roles? (I would be beyond thrilled if Neil Patrick Harris was cast as the male lead.)








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