Movies
Katherine Heigl Joins Puppet Thriller, ‘The Happytime Murders’
Katherine Heigl is going full circle. Having kicked her movie career off with Bride of Chucky (among others), the starlette was just attached to Face Blind and is now in final negotiations to star in the Jim Henson Co.’s The Happytime Murders, which Stuart Ford’s IM Global will launch to buyers at the European Film Market next week, says Variety.
Directed by Brian Henson (A Muppets Christmas Carol) and penned by Todd Berger (Kung Fu Panda 2) from a story he wrote with Dee Austin Robertson, “the pic takes place in a world where puppets and humans live together, but the puppets are viewed as second-class citizens. When the puppet cast of an 1980s kids TV show gets murdered one by one, a disgraced detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.”
The film noir puppet comedy has been in development at the Henson Co. since 2008.
Movies
Amblin Movie ‘Thursday Murder Club’ Sounds Like ‘Knives Out’ Meets ‘Cocoon’
Chris Columbus (Gremlins – writer, Home Alone – director) is headed back into the director’s chair for Thursday Murder Club, Amblin’s upcoming feature film adaptation of the same-titled novel written by Richard Osman. Variety first reported the news this morning.
It’s not a horror movie, mind you, but rather a star-studded murder-mystery. Think Rian Johnson’s Knives Out… only this particular murder-mystery is set in a retirement community!
Variety details, “The book, released in 2020, tells the story of four septuagenarian friends who live in a retirement community and solve cold cases for fun. When a shady property developer is found dead, the four find themselves in the middle of their first live crime.”
Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley are “being eyed” to lead the cast!
Richard Osman’s 2020 novel was such a hit that it launched a franchise. Follow-up The Man Who Died Twice followed in 2021, with The Bullet That Missed coming along in 2022. And then there was The Last Devil to Die in 2023, with a fifth book in the series expected in 2025.
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