Script Review: The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made (or is it?)

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Although a much earlier draft of The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller had been reviewed elsewhere before, when I was offered the opportunity to take a look at a much more recent draft (dated 10/30/09, aka post-D23), I jumped.

It was at the D23 Expo in early September where then-Walt Disney Studios President Dick Cook offered up a strong Muppets song & dance number before announcing the title of the film, The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, a nod towards an old a project Muppets writer Jerry Juhl was reported to have been working on for years, even alongside Jim Henson.

Enter the recent draft which still bears the original working title. Whether the D23 announced title sticks or whether the existing script will be scrapped and be completely re-written remains to be seen, but what is evident is that neither title seems appropriate for the film.

It is clear that Judd Apatow-protege Jason Segel is a fan of the Muppets as well as his writing parter Nicholas Stoller (who used to write for Segel on Apatow’s Undeclared before co-writing Forgetting Sarah Marshall with him), but unfortunately, that’s about all that’s clear in this film paved with good intentions.