By On Friday, I found myself near Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood, when I noticed the recognizable Henson sign had been replaced with a beaten, battered Muppet Studios sign, covered in rust and what may be bullet holes. The studio was getting a makeover for a day of shooting for The Muppets, the long-awaited Jason Segal-penned Muppet film once known as The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made!
The lot, usually a pristine place and once home to Charlie Chaplin’s own United Artists, has been made up to look dilapidated and abandoned, at least in parts where people aren’t currently working. In the pictures in the gallery below, we see lots of closed down attractions, an abandoned guard station with a Muppet-sized chair, and evidence that few people or Muppets have set foot in Muppet Studios for a while. I’m assuming, then, that in The Muppets, the gang, in order to save their old theatre, decides to come back to their old studio to help put on that one last great show. This could also mean that the location to be saved has changed from the old Muppet Show theatre to Muppet Studios itself.
As always with Muppet productions, the level of detail and craftsmanship here is amazing. Elsewhere, where I couldn’t get pictures, there were strewn bits of old sets from both The Muppet Show and the various Muppet movies. This level of continuity, especially with a well-travelled property like the Muppets, is great for a fan like me, who will take great pleasure in picking out all the old Muppet references in these sets when The Muppets is released on Christmas 2011.