Jarrod Fairclough Presents: "?"
Because Asking Questions Is A Good Way To Find Out Things
Question: What the heck is going on with the Fraggle Rock Movie?
Hello sports fans, and welcome to my follow up article to my last post, “What the heck is going on with the Fraggle Rock Movie?”
We had some fair discussion on this topic over at the Muppet Central Forum just after it was posted, with a few people giving their opinions, mainly on the proposed "edgy" factor and the Weinstein Company. I was pretty impressed to see people’s thoughts, and, without them giving their written consent, I am going to tell you a few things they said. Please don’t sue me. (
Ryan's Note: Or me.)
Frequent Muppet Mindset contributor James Gannon wrote, “Weinstink is clearly waffling and maguffening the movie so they never have to spend their precious money to make it... Henson... GET OUT OF WEINSTINE FAST OR THIS MOVIE WILL NEVER GET MADE!”
Ha! I love this guy’s passion--and I totally agree. I can’t see this film coming out any time soon, which really sucks. I have been looking forward to this since it was announced years ago, but here we have the Whinysteins mucking around, trying to make a wholesome, family classic into a money making franchise. By the way, I only just realized James said Weinstink... That’s comedy right there.
Muppet Central Forum member Luke wrote that he doesn’t see this film being made by Weinstein, and that he believes that Henson will go and co-produce with someone more traditional. I think to keep the Fraggles with the integrity they already have, this is a good idea. I can’t see Weinstein doing a good job with this film.
And then my new favorite person this week, James Gannon, came back for more, and he did not hold back: "The 'edginess' thing seems like a complete and utter ploy. There's no way they'll get this into production if they keep ordering a set of phony baloney rewrites...Weinstein was Henson's partner back several years ago when all they contributed was making little CGI kiddy flicks. Lionsgate has been a strong partner...releasing the back catalog of older specials and projects owned by Henson...much better than even Disney and Sesame Workshop have been doing. I say, jump ship... go to Lionsgate... let Weinstein go under."
But all this time, I’ve known the answer to my question. Truth be told, I got an answer before I submitted the first article with the question, otherwise I wouldn’t have submitted it. I said that I was going for a particular person’s answer, and I don’t think many people had a problem realizing that someone was Cory Edwards, the (hopefully) writer and director of the film. So, with his actual written consent, I am going to copy and paste his answer to "What the heck is going on with the Fraggle Rock Movie?"
"Jarrod,
I'm always up for talking to Fraggle fans. I wish I had something more definitive and less frustrating to share. But the answer to your question is the same as it has been for months: Nothing. Nothing is going on with the movie... or if it is, I am not being told about it (sadly, this could also be possible). After two years and ten drafts of what many insiders called a very good script and something that was very true to the original series, the Weinstein Company has placed the project on an indefinite hold.
Thanks to all the fans who remain enthusiastic. Be patient, that's all I can say. These things take time!
Cory Edwards"Well, didn’t that just ruin your day? So the answer to this week's question is... Not a lot!
Well, all I can say Muppet fans is cross your fingers, your toes, your eyes, your arms, your legs, and your ears. But don’t go out in public like that, or old ladies will throw rocks at you. Believe me. It’s a long story; I don’t want to go in to it. All I’ll say is that charges are pending, and I’m taking that old lady down.
Well, that’s it for another installment of "?". I shall be back soon with another question. Also, feel free to comment here, or on the Muppet Central Forum, or on Facebook to request questions or characters you want questioned. Someone wrote on my Oscar article “Questions about Pepe!” which I’ll hopefully get on to soon, when I can think of a question about him!
As for now, I’m about to finish my last week of university for the year--studying animation, by the way. And then I’m going away, or technically for the majority of you, coming to your country. I’m spending three weeks in the U.S soon, and, hopefully, I’ll be able to have a Muppet experience to tell you I already have something planned with Muppeteer Paul McGinnis.
But I’ll be seeing you before I go, and I hope you all have a Fraggle-icious day, and dance your cares away.
Cheers,
Jarrod
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier
Parks and Recreation's Rashida Jones, one of the human leads of the upcoming The Muppets movie, talked to MTV's Movies Blog about the picture and her involvement. She called the experience "...surreal and awesome and really fun." (Duh.) Jones also mentioned her special involvement with Kermit in the movie, saying that she even requested for him to be off-camera with her, treating him like a real person on and off camera. (You mean he's not a real person?) But what really excites this Muppet fan is this paragraph: "They have successfully addressed the fact that [the Muppets have] kind of been gone a while and the fact that this generation doesn't really know who they are...I think they did a great job of balancing what was and what should and will be." If that isn't a fantastic endorsement for the movie, I don't know what is!
Roger Langridge's final arc of The Muppet Show Comic Book, "Four Seasons," has been tossed around with release dates since Christmas time with very little in the way of actual updates on the likelihood of seeing the arc released. Well, unfortunately, our good friends over at ToughPigs have a reluctant and disappointing answer. It's all very complicated and annoying, but the main point is that at this time there are no plans to release the arc. The best way to possibly see this arc released is to send a bunch of tweets to Disney Comics on Twitter (@DisneyComics), telling them how much we'd love to see this final arc of this fantastic book released.
Remember a few weeks ago when Neil Patrick Harris interviewed Brian Henson at the San Francisco SketchFest? Well, photos of said event have finally surfaced over on the Henson Alternative Wiki. There are some incredible pictures of both Brian and NPH fooling around with some Henson puppets and they both appear to be having a fantastic time. (Once again, duh.) This once again makes me wish I could have been there for this awesome event!
Friend of the blog and fun guy Cory Edwards has an incredible charity auction going on now on his blog. He is auctioning off a signed copy of the Fraggle Rock Complete Series set, autographed by Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, and Karen Prell, along with their Fraggle characters including Boober Fraggle, Wembley Fraggle, Red Fraggle, World's Oldest Fraggle, Large Marvin, and more! If I had the money I would most certainly bid on this incredible collector's item... so I really hope a caring Muppet fans gets this great piece to add to his or her collection! 
