We knew him first in Flight of the Conchords, but since then Bret McKenzie has become a musical treasure. His involvement in the music for The Muppets, alongside director James Bobin, got him an Oscar for Best Song, and has made him more and more a household name. So, it’s quite exciting to hear the McKenzie and Bobin are now at work on another musical, this one in the vein of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth.
Here is what McKenzie had to say about the fairytale musical he’s working on right now:
I’m in the middle of a script for a kind of—it hasn’t got a name yet but it’s a fairy tale comedy musical, sort of akin to ‘Labyrinth’ or something like that. I’m developing and that script’s halfway through. James Bobin’s helping me. I’m the official writer but we’re developing it. I want to make a comedy musical with singing dragons and monsters and stuff. [It’s] live-action, so it would be a mixture of ‘The Muppets’ and ‘The Princess Bride.’
No title yet but it’s definitely my favorite thing I’m working on at the moment. It’s early, though, it’s early. It’s still developing.
OK, so not a lot of details there, but it’s obviously early days yet on this one. McKenzie still has some work to do on Muppets Most Wanted before he gives this one his undivided attention. Still, it’s good to hear that he and Bobin have something new lined up along the same lines as their other Henson-style outings.
While I had a few reservations about The Muppets, most of them had to do with Jason Segel and the odd lack of Muppets in their own movie. McKenzie’s songs were among the highlights of that film and it will be great to see what he can do with a little more artistic leeway, maybe not having to adhere to other people’s characters. What’s more, if this is actually similar to Labyrinth, with the same use of puppets and practical effects rather than CGI, then so much the better. We might not get David Bowie in incredibly tight trousers, but then we can’t have everything. We certainly need some practical fantasy features right now.
We’ll keep an eye on this one and let you know when we have further information.
For right now, you’ll be able to hear some of Bret McKenzie‘s work when Muppets Most Wanted hits theatres on March 21, 2014.
