In case you haven’t heard amongst all of the noise of the upcoming Summer blockbuster season, there is a new muppets movie due out on November 23 of this year! I know Proletariatron and I have been catching the bits and pieces of the news as it has been released, but today Disney released the first teaser poster for the muppets’ triumphant return to the big screen in their latest film simply titled, The Muppets.

Jason Segell – who apparently is a hugemuppets fan – co-wrote the script and is starring in the film as Gary, the human that befriends the muppets and helps them save their beloved muppet theater from an oil tycoon bent on demolishing it to get to oil that he believes lies underneath it.

In an article in USA Today, Segel talked a bit about the film:

While the lifelong Muppet fan has vowed to keep the movie true to its original core, expect changes such as Kermit the Frog walking on-screen when the movie opens Nov. 23.

“Technology has changed,” says Segel. “We’re able to show them doing stuff they hadn’t been able to do before. We’re pretty proud of that.”

. . .

“We have every Muppet you could possibly think of,” he says, including Beaker and the Swedish Chef.

The filmmakers decided to embrace the fact that the Muppets have not been on-screen since 1999’s Muppets From Space.

“Entertainment changed. It became about animation, violence and cynicism. The Muppets sort of lost their place,” says Segel. “In the movie, we acknowledge that the Muppets had some rough years and went their own separate ways to start their own careers.”

Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, and Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management.

–USA Today

There have been some concerns amongst muppet fans regarding Segel’s comment about “technology changing” that he may mean the use of CGI muppets. My guess is that this is not the case as everything Segel has said about this film is that it is going to be a classic muppet movie. My own speculation is that the only CGI we will be seeing (if any) in this film involving muppets may be the removal of rods and other mpuppetry tools to accomplish full-body shots, etc.

Having just watched The Muppets Take Manhattan on Netflix a few weeks ago – which, by the way, still holds up today and is a great film – I couldn’t be more excited for the return of Kermit and Miss Piggy and company this November and will be planted firmly in a seat at my local theater opening weekend. Of course, it wouldn’t be a muppet movie without a bevy of human-star cameos. Here’s a list of some stars you can expect so far:

• Amy Adams
• Chris Cooper
• Emily Blunt
• John Krasinsky
• Sean Penn
• Neil Patrick Harris
• Jack Black
• Danny Trejo
• Zack Galifianakis
• Katy Perry
• Ed Helms
• Ricky Gervais
• Whoopy Goldberg
• Mickey Rooney

and the list goes on . . .

The Muppets opens on November 23, 2011.

Friday the 18th started the 8th Annual SLC Tattoo Convention, bringing artists from all over the world to a city that nobody would expects to have a tattoo convention. I made my first and definitely not my last trip to the convention yesterday. It takes up a one of the halls in the Salt Palace and this year there are a tad over 100 tattoo shops and vendors so there is plenty to see. When I walked in I was a bit overwhelmed. I was still dressed for work so I got a lot of strange looks from a lot of people, I guess business attire at a tattoo convention is wrong. I had always thought that you only went to the convention to get tattooed or if you were a tattoo artist but there was a lot of art there from some very awesome people, if I could afford it I’d go back today and buy up a lot more art. There are also the tattoo competitions and live belly dancing every day. Admission is $20 for a day pass.

Thanks to a recommendation from Dave Styer of Geekleetist.com I had a tattoo appointment with Mike Groves from Pain and Wonder Tattoo out of Athens, Georgia. That was extra awesome because along with Pain and Wonder came Chris Hamer and Keith P Rein of Urbnpop.com and Pisforpenis.com. These guys are all awesome artists and I was able to buy some great stuff from them. Links are at the end of the article and are all NSFW

I was really happy that Dave had sent me to Mikes portfolio because I was able to see that hes a comics fan and that his style lined up with what I wanted. As soon as I saw that Mike had a B.P.R.D custom tattoo gun I knew I’d made the right choice. And on top of that I was able to get one of his bad ass, fucked up Muppet prints. Along with that I picked up a custom pin-up girl bottle opener from Keith.

I’d sent Mike a link to the design I wanted and he did a perfect rendition of it with a bit of his style mixed in, it was exactly what I wanted. I got a the wrench because I am a huge Edward Abbey fan and one of my favorite books of his is The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Getting your foot tattooed is one of the more painful places and luckily I could talk Battle Star Galactica and Hell Boy with Mike so I could be distracted and along with that Terra from Iris Piercing in SLC was there keeping me entertained so that I barely felt it.

If you’re looking to check out something you usually don’t see in SLC and would like to check out some very awesome art from around the country get yourself down to the SLC Tattoo Convention, it runs through Sunday.

Links:

Mike Groves – Pain and Wonder Tattoo – poopbird.com

Dave Styer – Geekleetist.com – Etsy

Keith P Rein – ThePisforPenis.com – IndiesArt page

Chris Hamer – urbnpop.com – Etsy

Terra – Irispiercing.com

You can also find all these guys on Tumblr so make sure to check out their awesome art.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the new Muppets movie will follow a familiar format and provide a myriad of cameo roles for actors to add to their resumes.

The latest actors to be connected to the film are Alan Arkin, Jack Black, Billy Crystal, Zach Galifianakis and Jean-Claude Van. I mentioned in an earlier article that Amy Adams and Chris Cooper would have more prominent roles, and Rashida Jones is now listed, too.

Naturally, scheduling so many different actors presents a problem to the studio, but I honestly don’t think losing a cameo actor to a scheduling conflict will break this film.  The most important factors, in my opinion, are story, music, and Muppet talent.  They need to be believable and funny, and the movie needs to capture the warmth and heart of earlier films like The Muppet Christmas Carol.  Will there ever be a scene as tender or memorable as when Kermit plays his banjo and sings “Rainbow Connection” in The Muppet Movie?

Probably not, but one can hope.

I also don’t think anything can compare to the cuteness of “I’m Gonna Always Love You” sung by baby Miss Piggy in The Muppets Take Manhattan, or the beauty of the wedding scene in the same film.  “Wedding, wedding, piggy froggy wedding” says it all.

The movie poster below gives a hint of all of the cameo actors that appeared in The Muppet Movie, and the list contains Orson Welles, Bob Hope, Carole Kane, Dom Deluise, and Steve Martin.

Similarly, the Muppets Take Manhattan had Brooke Shields, Joan Rivers, Dabney Coleman, Liza Minnelli, and several more.  Everyone wants to work with the Muppets.  If you don’t, there is something missing from you, like a heart, or a soul.

Who doesn’t love the Muppets ? Well, it looks like the old gang will be reunited in an all-new adventure due in theaters December 2011.  The last Muppet movie to receive a theatrical release was 1999’s Muppets from Space.

Geek Tyrant shares some photos from Entertainment Weekly, and they warm my ice-cold heart. Visit the site to see the two-page spread, but I’ve included just a glimpse below.  Beaker, Dr. Bunson Honeydew, Sweetums, Swedish Chef, and of course lovable Kermit the Frog are all there.  Though Miss Piggy is noticeably absent, she is mentioned in the article, so rest assured the porcine diva will also make an appearance.  (Though Frank Oz stopped voicing her long ago, and she’s never sounded the same to me.)

I hope Pepe the Prawn will also appear; he’s my favorite from the post-Muppet Show years, okay?

Some of the humans appearing in the film include Jason Segel (“How I Met Your Mother”), Amy Adams (“Enchanted”) and Chris Cooper (“Remember Me”), and a new Muppet named Walter (seen below).  Walter is a huge fan of Kermit and the gang, and he and his friend Gary (played by Segel) help the Muppets put on a show to save the Muppet Theater.

This movie could turn out to be one of the greatest movies ever or an insult to Jim Henson’s name.  Only time will tell, but I am glad that these iconic characters are hitting the big screen again.  Their zany antics have entertained kids and adults for decades, and so long as Muppets exist, I know all is right with the world.

Heatvision is reporting that Lionsgate is producing a Brian Henson directed Muppet movie, but it’s not exactly what you’re thinking…

Here’s their synopsis of the film, “Happytime Murders”:

“Happytime” 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 with his former human partner. Think “Avenue Q” meets “L.A. Confidential.”

This sounds very much like a Who Framed Roger Rabbit? sort of story set in the 80s and I really couldn’t be more excited about this. This sounds like a very adult, dark version of the genre and it could be very, very good.

Some have speculated that this is going to be another Muppet movie, but I would say that’s impossible for two reasons:

1) This sounds far too dark

2) Disney owns all of the proper Muppets now, not Lionsgate.

In any case, it’s great to see that Muppets are getting their due in film now.  Between this, Jason Segal’s new Muppet Movie hitting theatres next year and the l0ng rumoured Dark Crystal sequel, we’ll be rolling in Muppets.  Now if we could get the Muppets in a murder mystery of their own, we’d be all set.  (Wouldn’t that be great to imagine?  Something like a cross between Clue: The Movie and The Muppet’s Take Manhattan?  That’s a movie I’d pay to see.)