Jason Segel to play the lead in new movie

Who is your favorite human lead in a Muppet movie?

  • Charles Durning as Doc Hopper (The Muppet Movie)

    Votes: 16 20.5%
  • Charles Grodin as Nicky Holiday (The Great Muppet Caper)

    Votes: 15 19.2%
  • Juliana Donald as Jenny (The Muppets Take Manhattan)

    Votes: 12 15.4%
  • Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge (The Muppet Christmas Carol)

    Votes: 22 28.2%
  • Tim Curry as Long John Silver (Muppet Treasure Island)

    Votes: 11 14.1%
  • Jeffrey Tambor as K. Edgar Singer (Muppets From Space)

    Votes: 2 2.6%

  • Total voters
    78

Drtooth

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That's my only concern with the picture. And I'm glad you brought the Looney Tunes movies up, because I'd hate to see anyone do something like that again. Not that I didn't like the parts of the movie that worked, but I want focus on the characters as well. BIA basically focused on Jenna Elman and Brendan Frasier, and I think that diluted the emotional direction they wanted to go with Daffy Duck... of course, had they used some of the original stuff (like the opening that CLEARLY made light of WB's problems getting Batman's movie franchise back on track) it would have been a FAR better film.

I'm hoping Jason knows the last bunch of Muppet movies lost their edge (especially the classic retelling ones) because they were secondary and tertiary behind the human actors (sometimes, bit part characters who had better parts than even Kermit).
 

RedPiggy

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The Daffy plot was really the only reason I liked that movie. :smile:
 

James Denny

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Couple of things,

Firstly Segal may be hugely popular in the States, I don't know I don't live there. How I Met Your Mother isn't as far as im aware currently being shown on terrestrial tv in the U.K., you can get it on a rather cool channel called E4 however, thar basis how therefore unless people have been to see a movie or watch E4 on a regular basis how on earth are people gonna know who the guy is. I can think of several people with more name recognition who would be perfect to fill the role.

Secondly whilst BoRhap came after movie announcement that alone should have made Disney sit up and notice that people like the Muppets.

Thirdly anyone who i have to IMDB to figure out who they are isn't to my mind a big star.

Fourthly what everyone seems to have ignored is that I'm not anti this movie being made as long as it isn't a Segal vehicle.
 

Super Scooter

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Well, I don't think it really matters that the human lead is a big name actor. After all, I'm going to see the movie for the Muppets, and they're as big a name as they come.

And, remember, the humans from TMTM weren't exactly well known. Segel is fairly popular here, but I think a huge star would detract from the Muppet characters with producers wanting to use said huge star more and more, and would also detract from the fun cameos.
 

frogboy4

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Well, I don't think it really matters that the human lead is a big name actor. After all, I'm going to see the movie for the Muppets, and they're as big a name as they come.

And, remember, the humans from TMTM weren't exactly well known. Segel is fairly popular here, but I think a huge star would detract from the Muppet characters with producers wanting to use said huge star more and more, and would also detract from the fun cameos.
I have to agree with this.

Also, Segel is the guy who initiated this project in the first place and lit a fire under Disney to get it done. I don't see why he can't be a human lead just as Charles Grodin was in GMC and Juliana Donald was in MTM. Segel's a funny guy and a perfect personality fit for the Muppets.
 

Drtooth

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I think everyone can agree to that, even though Jason is fairly popular around here. I'm sure if the tables were turned, and it was a British movie, they'd have some British actor no one in the states knows about yet. I mean, besides myself who watches Britcoms (or did, when PBS had GOOD ones) knew who Hugh Laurie was before House?

And would we REALLY want a big star in a Muppet movie? And as a lead, not a cameo. I'd hate to see any big stars mugging the camera, detracting from the fact it's a Muppet movie, and basically saying "Oh! That new Jim Carrey movie with the Moffins or whatever it is from the 70's we only care about if they're on nostalgia T-shirts." The only concern I have is that Jason would do that, but considering he has a little disdain for more current Muppet movies, I'm sure he knows we DON'T want that.

And yes, as I said, he's the one that basically went to Disney and said "Why aren't you doing anything with the Muppets?" in the first place, giving them the opportunity for this movie. This IS Disney we're talking about. They could have been liable to sit on the Muppet license for years and crank out farting CGI realistic animal movies like Underdog and G-Force that will bomb instead. As long as it's not the Jason Segel movie that features the Muppets, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
 

McFraggle

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I don't have a problem with Segel, but I hope the Muppets are the stars of this movie.
 

RedPiggy

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I'm willing to bet it will look like The Segel Movie featuring the Muppets at first, but as he tries to get them back to glory, it will be clear this is their movie.
 
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