Deadline has brought word that Bo Burnham, the acclaimed standup comedian-turned-filmmaker behind the acclaimed coming-of-age dramedy Eighth Grade, has signed on to contribute songs for the upcoming Sesame Street film at Warner Bros.
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Prior to making his feature debut last year, Burnham made a name for himself as a musical stand-up comedian, with his first live comedy special “Words, Words, Words” receiving rave reviews and landing on the Billboard Top 200 and landing at the number one spot on the Billboard Comedy list.
Portlandia director and co-creator Jonathan Krisel (Baskets, Kroll Show) will be directing the live-action Sesame Street musical based the educational series that premiered in 1969 on PBS and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morriset. The show features a combination of live-action and puppetry, as well as animation. It is best known as the home of Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, and Elmo, all created by Jim Henson.
The film, which will star Anne Hathaway (Ocean’s 8), will follow Big Bird and his friends as they find themselves mysteriously transported to Manhattan and seemingly unable to return to their homes on Sesame Street and team up with a history show host to save her series from cancellation and to prove the existence of the childhood favorites’ home to the world, all while avoiding an evil mayor attempting to thwart their efforts.
The Sesame Street movie is being produced by Oscar nominee Shawn Levy (Arrival) alongside Michael Aguilar (Kidding). Krisel will be directing from a script penned by Chris Galletta, who wrote the most recent draft. Mike Rosolio wrote the first draft of the script. Sesame Workshop holds the right to the series and will be involved with project development.
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Levy has been working on the movie since 2012 when 20th Century Fox previously held the rights to the big screen project. In 2015, Sesame Workshop signed a five-season deal with HBO and Warner Bros. began working on a film companion to the series.
Sesame Street has come to the big screen twice before: in 1985 with Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird and in 1999 with Elmo in Grouchland. The latest Sesame Street movie serves as Krisel’s first major studio movie after spending several years on the Emmy Award-winning series Portlandia.
(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)
