New Sesame Street Movie: 20th Century Fox Acquires Rights

A new Sesame Street movie is currently in the works, according to the folks over at the Hollywood Reporter. 20th Century Fox recently secured motion picture rights to the property, and have tapped Shawn “Real Steel” Levy’s 21 Laps to produce alongside Michael Aguilar, Mark Gordon and Film 360’s Guymon Casady. Even though I’m well into my 30’s and have zero children to speak of, I’m not above proclaiming my love for the long-running series. In fact, I wouldn’t be totally against seeing this thing on the big screen. Assuming that it actually happens, of course.

Despite having been on the air since 1969, Sesame Street and its inhabitants have only enjoyed two full-length Hollywood features, namely director Ken Kwapis’ 1985 adventure “Follow that Bird” and Gary Halvorson’s 1999 Elmo vehicle “The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland”. Given the popularity of last year’s surprise hit “The Muppets”, it’s not too surprising that Hollywood is going back to Jim Henson’s well for inspiration. Unless there’s a cold, empty void where you soul should be, “Follow that Bird” is still a delight to behold after all these years.

Although Fox has no official comment on the matter, it’s expected that the Sesame Street Workshop will have a hand in the production, as well. Currently, veteran writer Joey Mazzarino, a man who is well-versed in the “Street”, has been hired to pen the script. The sooner this thing gets off the ground, the happier a lot of people will be. Of course, it remains to be seen if the theaters will be full of children or people who are just children-at-heart. Honestly, I know more adults who enjoyed “The Muppets” than I do kids.

In the white space positioned below this article, you can find a sampling of Twitter reactions to the news, all of which seem to view the upcoming “Sesame Street” movie in a very positive light. Considering it’s been over a decade since anything “Street”-related has made its way onto the big screen, I’d say it’s high time that Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, and Elmo make their long-awaited return to Hollywood.