Stoller On The Fast Track, Plans “Muppets” And “Greek”

Nick Stoller won my heart for at least fifteen minutes earlier this week with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Now he’s on “the fast track.” So what’s next for Mr. Director of the Week? Well, more and more titles just keep rolling out. Besides writing the script for Yes Man, the next Jim Carey film, and directing Universal’s Five-Year Engagement, he’s busy working with some new characters.

Anyone who’s already seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall has gotten a slight taste of Stoller’s affection toward puppets. Toward the end of the film Jason Segel directs his own Dracula musical using puppets (created by the Henson folks no less). Now he’s ready to tackle one of the largest puppet franchises of all time, The Muppets. Stoller will direct with the help of co-writer and star Segel. The two of them have some pretty big shoes to fill considering past Muppet films have all been relatively well accepted, excluding 2005’s The Muppets: Wizard of Oz.

I was a little concerned at first. I mean, it seems sort of odd that Segel would go from playing with his wang to a franchise that is known for being family oriented. Regardless, it’s great to see up and coming comedians that want to rejuvenate the series. A few weeks ago Segel spilled the details on the story calling it “very old fashioned” and “hilarious, fantastic, heart-wrenching, beautiful, nostalgic and remarkable.” It follows the Muppets as they attempt to save an old theater from “an evil character” that wants to destroy it. It’s in the early stages so there’s still a lot of news on this project to look forward to.

Aside from Stoller’s Muppet project, he’s working with two other stars from Marshall. This time Jonah Hill and Russell Brand are set in the leading roles in a “buddy” film called Get Him to the Greek. Judd Apatow will return as producer but it’s unclear if he’ll spend any time helping Stoller with the script.

Jonah Hill is an insurance adjuster that just finished college, one of his first jobs is to accompany an uncontrollable rock star to his gig at Greek Theater. Brand’s role doesn’t sound like it will differ much from Aldous Snow in Marshall and that’s nothing to be weary about in my book. Supposedly Hill and Brand showed an incredibly amount of chemistry during Marshall’s screening process and that’s what led to the project.

Here’s to hoping the Apatow team doesn’t stretch themselves too thin!