The announcement that Bret McKenzie would supply “The Muppets” with its songs came as a surprise, but a perfectly logical one, and the “Flight of the Conchords” star more than proved to be a smart hire with some of the best movie musical songs in recent memory, one of which, “Man Or Muppet,” saw McKenzie win an Oscar for Best Original Song. McKenzie’s back for next year’s sequel “Muppets Most Wanted,” but it also sounds like he might be teaming with a frequent collaborator for something more original…
Speaking with Collider about his acting turn in “Austenland,” McKenzie touched too on another untitled project, his “favorite thing” that he’s working on currently. He described it as a “fairy tale comedy musical” in live-action, with influences that include “Labyrinth,” “The Muppets,” and “The Princess Bride.” Naturally with that combination, he added that he wants “singing dragons and monsters” as elements within the film’s as-yet-unrevealed narrative.
McKenzie claims that he and his co-writer James Bobin (who directed “The Muppets” films and much of “Conchords”) are presently halfway through the script, and therefore still very early into development as a whole; But while sounding like a loony, left-field challenge for nearly anyone else (excluding possibly David Gordon Green), McKenzie’s fantasy project sounds like an exciting direction for him to travel. Let’s hope someone steps up to finance soon after they’re done with it, because it sounds like a blast to us.
