Muppet lovers haven’t exactly been thrilled with the way that Disney has handled Jim Henson’s beloved characters, as evidenced by the recent backlash over the shuttering of Disney World’s Muppet*Vision 3D. But fans may be pleased to learn that same company that just scrapped the beloved theme park ride is currently developing a brand new movie about Kermit the Frog’s frequently abusive romantic partner, Miss Piggy.
As reported by Variety, during an appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast, hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, Jennifer Lawrence made a surprise announcement concerning the fate of the Muppet-verse.
“I don’t know if I can announce this but I am just going to,” Lawrence told the hosts. “Emma Stone and I are producing a Miss Piggy movie and Cole (Escola) is writing it.” While Lawrence didn’t provide any details about the film’s plot, she did reveal that “it’s fucked up. It’s really dark.”
Don’t Miss
While some folks may be shocked to hear Lawrence describe a Muppet movie as if it were a Saw sequel, this actually makes total sense. A tragic origin story has always been baked into the character of Miss Piggy, even though her personal demons have largely remained private.
The character was created by puppeteer Frank Oz and designer Bonnie Erickson; although Piggy was mostly a source of comedy, Oz conceived of a tragic backstory for the Muppet Show diva.
“The tremendous advantage of doing a series of 24 shows a year is that you have all that time to develop a character,” Oz told The New York Times back in 1979. “And although Miss Piggy’s essentially humorous, to me she’s had a sad, difficult, painful life. This is not for the audience to know, but the puppeteer should know the background of any good character in order to be able to improvise.”
The paper noted that Oz even went so far as to pen a “four‐page Stanislavskian analysis of Miss Piggy’s life and hard times” which he presented to the show’s head writer, Jerry Juhl. “She grew up in a small town; her father died when she was young; her mother wasn’t that nice to her,” Oz explained. “She had to enter beauty contests to survive. She has a lot of aggressiveness, but she needs a lot to survive – as many single women do. She has a lot of vulnerability, which she has to hide, because of her need to be a superstar.”
It remains to be seen whether or not Lawrence’s project will incorporate Oz’s old ideas for the character, or if they’ll come up with a brand new depressing story.
Although, to be honest, no “dark” Muppet movie will ever match the darkness of that Denny’s commercial where Kermit and Miss Piggy gleefully feasted on the flesh of her relatives.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: feeds.feedburner.com
