There’s something special about The Muppets that always keeps them relevant in one way or another. Maybe it’s the recurring trend of people conceiving of various shows or films remade with the Muppet characters, or maybe it’s simply a testament to Jim Henson’s powerful legacy. Either way, one more creative fan has proposed a Muppet-ified retelling of a classic story, and it feels like a match so perfect, one almost wonders why nobody ever thought of it before.
Reddit user ScreamingVegetable (real name Ben Crew) took up a challenge posed by the r/movies subreddit, which called for a Muppets remake of the literary classic The Great Gatsby, much in the vein of Muppet Treasure Island and Muppet Christmas Carol. In merely a couple of weeks, he threw together a whopping 104-page screenplay for a theoretical film titled Muppets Present: “The Great Gatsby” complete with a conceptual movie poster.
Not only is the screenplay’s length substantial, but the writing quality feels like it could be the catalyst for an actual Muppets movie. Beyond that, Crew’s theoretical casting splits roles among the titular Muppets and actual human actors, with pairings like Kermit the Frog as Gatsby bouncing off the surprisingly prolific Tom Holland as Nick Carraway. Not only that, but it takes cues from past Muppets adaptations and casts Gonzo and Rizzo as faux narrators who exist in the story but can also interact with the audience. It seems no detail was overlooked.
Like one would expect from an official Muppets product, the full story is there, but punctuated by plenty of jokes and gags. One particularly memorable bit involves Gonzo and Rizzo (as the newly created and cheekily-named characters Fitz and Gerald) finding a copy of the actual book The Great Gatsby to help them keep track of Nick. In this script, they are actually friends with him in a similar manner to their characters sticking with Jim Hawkins in Muppet Treasure Island.
Miss Piggy plays Daisy, Fozzie Bear plays George Wilson, Pepe the King Prawn plays Meyer Wolfsheim (humorously renamed to “Meyer Wolfprawn”), and all the other Muppets get their own time to shine at one point or another. Though perhaps the most inspired bit of casting places the crotchety old hecklers Statler and Waldorf as, in so many words, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, fulfilling their judgmental role in an incredibly creative manner.
The whole screenplay is available on Google Drive for anyone to read, assuming they have several hours to kill. But beware. Those who read it are cursed to join the ever growing masses begging for an official film using this script. Whether or not anything comes of it, it’s certainly a satisfying read. Maybe it’ll make a nice companion piece to Jim Henson’s cult classic sitcom Dinosaurs, which recently arrived on Disney Plus.
Source: ScreamingVegetable|Reddit
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