Heading into UK cinemas today is the brand new Muppets movie,Muppets Most Wanted.
Heres how it went…
Mild spoilers for Muppets Most Wanted lie ahead…
The Muppets continue to popularise quite an old fashioned craft.
More than just puppeteering, too.
What are your feelings on it?
So theres still a huge amount of visual effects work, even though it doesnt necessarily seem it.
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But basically, youre right.
The very prosaic boring answer is its in the planning.
Thats how Muppet movies work.
Because of the way the characters work, and because of the way shots work.
For example, Kermits height.
At chest height, hes okay when hes in a group of humans.
You have to plan the sequence of shots.
Then on location, theres something like the door handles have to be a different height.
But obviously thats far too high to reach a normal door handle.
Things you never would consider on location, all of those things come up!
[Laughs]And also they used marionettes, and thats possibly even harder!
I didnt really know.
And they are fantastic at doing that.
It feels very real when they do it: the hand action is matched by your own voice.
Theres no voiceover, no work after, its all live.
So hand puppets in a way are possibly easier than marionettes!
Hand puppets have a very natural rhythm to them, all the way back to Punch and Judy.
And thats centuries old.
Children when they come on set talk to Kermit, they dont talk to Steve [Whitmire].
I love that idea.
And the bet was how many reviews of your film would quote lines of that song back at you.
So: who won?
[Laughs] We always knew that it would be a ballsy move!
But it doesnt rhyme, so we couldnt use it!
But this isnt a sequel…
No, I know.
But to some people, it kind of is.
Certainly to my daughter, shes only aware of the other Muppet movies because of the last one.
So for a new generation it is a sequel.
Youre right, its not a sequel.
The first film was getting the family together again, so this was very much about what happens next.
In a Muppet movie, you could ask that question on the screen!
It is an incredible opening number, and beautifully misleading…
Its not even part of the film!
Its really just a thing that exists in its own world!
The idea of the film comes up during the song, but thats it!
And it kind of does that in a way, visually.
It goes from a Busby Berkely kind of thing to a much more kind ofEnemy Of The Statefeel.
The movie does change course quite dramatically!
My job on this is two hats, and those two hats are in competition and conflict.
Often my writing hat is writing cheques that my directing hat cant cash!
[Laughs]But you always want to obey the writing hat.
The directing guy is basically trying to do whatever the writing guy puts together.
Its all about ambition and ideas.
You always want to aim high.
The opening sequence, where Constantine goes does the corridor, thats a very complex scene.
Days and days of puppeteering, as you might imagine.
Each shot is 50 takes, a really complex thing.
So its particularly galling when someone says why did they put a CG frog in?
Its not a CG frog!
Its Matt Vogel puppeteering!
Its like an action movie straight away.
As a director, youre left wondering how do I do this?
Youre just silently sobbing for several minutes in the corner?
Its basically doing aMission: Impossibletakedown!
But its just one day at a time, you just break it down.
Storyboard it, sequence it, talk to puppeteers about what they can and cant do.
He spins like a Catherine wheel, and that really helps his natural rhythm.
You have to build mechanisms to make the puppet move in a certain way.
So youre the Christopher Nolan of puppet movies then?
[Laughs]Sort of.
Ill take that, thats a good quote.
But you have to be imaginative about how you approach this.
We knew he was going to be a very agile frog.
So then you have to start thinking about at what point he becomes a remote control puppet.
Remote control puppets go back to the 70s, and these are literally remote control.
They run on AA batteries, operated by a guy.
They have mechs, arms and things.
So when you see wide shots in the distance, often theres a remote control puppet in there.
Thats how they did the bicycle sequence inThe Great Muppet Caper.
A remote control puppet.
Kermit on the bike inThe Muppetswas actually harder that was wires.
In the second one, after you snag a group of bikes, you could tie them all together.
There are something like 16 different versions of the puppet in that opening sequence.
Did the Caper fan in you want to sneak the Happiness Hotel in the background somewhere?
Last time, there were getting back together again, so we couldnt do them just appearing.
They had to be drawn together.
That world exists there.
That was very liberating to me.
Ive always liked that idea, that the world is a mixture of humans and puppets.
That didnt seem to make the final cut?
Its in a group shot.
The Godfather Part III gag got cut from the version of the sequel song you use in the film.
But not from the album version…
Yeah.
That was because we felt I think that it was a little mean.
I love that joke.
Bret didnt mind the lyric, but he was one of those voting against it.
But on the album you think, fine!
Maybe itll be less well known on the album.
Is there anything else that didnt make the final cut?
Not entire scenes this time, just sequences, jokes, little bits and pieces.
Actually, we did cut one scene between Ricky Gervais and Constantine.
It killed us on the set, but didnt make the movie.
It is on the DVD though!
Your immediate future isnt Muppets-centric now.
Youre definitely doing Alice In Wonderland 2 next?
Yes, Ive already started.
But Im definitely doingAlice In Wonderland 2.
I cant talk about it very much though.
Im right in the middle of it, and production is imminent.
Yeah, yeah, I saw that.
Obviously Muppets films tend to endure an awful lot.
Is there a Muppets 3 you want to push through?
Its one of those things really.
But then it resets itself into another film it follows tradition and breaks tradition.
Whatever film is done next can be anything it wants to be.
I really hope they stay around.
I think thats fine.
But I think theres something special about keeping this form of entertainment alive.
I think theres a market for it, I just dont think its this great big massive thing.
I think this film will just keep going, and will make its money.
That weekend just happened to have a big young adult movie coming out at the same time.
Its hard to compete against.
For me, Im pleased that children still read books though!
Theres definitely a market for it though.
So do you think well see another Muppets film in the next few years?
I honestly dont know.
It depends how it does in the long run.
But youre definitely out of the next one, by the looks of it!
Alicedoesnt come out until 2016, and Im on that for a long time.
About three years of my life.
Post-production is 18 months, because the film is basically built in post.
Its a backwards film: its the exact opposite ofMuppets.Muppetsis incredibly analog,Aliceis very digital.
And for me as a director, I get to explore new areas.
Its the complete opposite end of the problem!
Only two of them have ever gone over $50m in America anyway.
Yeah, but they last.
And people watch them again and again.
People still talk about those films a lot.
They made their money, but they werent hits.
WatchingDark Crystalnow having made Muppet films, it really strikes me just how ambitious that film is.
In terms of the constructs, the builds, the puppeteering.
Then you get to Labyrinth, where you have 30-40 puppets on set at one time.
You have a big wedding sequence in this film that matches that number?
We had pretty much every puppeteer in England in that scene.
That famously has around 100 of them hanging out.
We must have had around about 100 puppeteers on that day, and you block shoot that.
You have half, then the other half.
There are literally not enough puppeteers in the world to put that scene together in one!
But its fun, and it keeps it alive.
Its that idea again where the Muppets exists in the world, mixing with humans.
So then: the big question.
Whats your favourite Jason Statham movie?
[Laughs]Thats a good question.
You know what, Im not even sure Ive seen any Jason Statham films.
Is he inThe Transporter?
Hes always around, he lives in L.A.
I see him at various parties!
James Bobin, thank you very much!
