We last heard about the planned Fraggle Rock movie nearly a year ago, when Henson heir Brian promised there was a good script and that the movie was very actively in development. Cut to a year later, and with the Weinstein Company in charge, you can probably guess why things have stalled out: meddling, and lots of it. Slashfilm picked up on a surprisingly frank blog post by Fraggle Rock screenwriter Cory Edwards, who warned readers at the beginning that "there are some dark days ahead."
The Weinstein Company gives me no confidence these days. Why?For starters, they have begun the search for a new writer, presumably to rewrite my entire script from scratch. Now I'm a big boy -- I can take the blow if my skills are not up to the high, high standards of the Weinstein Company (he said with too much sarcasm in his voice). But this is happening behind my back, without consulting me or even asking my opinion. I enjoy working with other writers and have no doubt that the RIGHT person could help make any script better. But to not even ask me? Adding insult to injury, the search is basically an open assignment. This means the net has been cast wide, virtually posting in the "classifieds" of the movie business. The Fraggles do not deserve such treatment.
The nail in the coffin, for Edwards, is that the studio is demanding the script be more "edgy," a word that he rightly points out means essentially nothing and is a good way to ruin a story in a hamfisted attempt to appeal to younger audiences.
What if "Toy Story" was edgy? "Toy Story" can be relevant, sharply written, and fast paced, but it has a genuine heart and sincere characters. Like "Toy Story," Fraggle Rock's success is not only due to it's anti-edginess, but in its absolute DEFIANCE of all that is edgy and trendy and pop in this world.I have said repeatedly that I will do my very best to make this Fraggle movie relevant and modern, to compete with everything else out there. But what I will NOT do is sabotage what made the property beloved in the first place.
There are a lot of layers of outrage in this post, and it's important to note that, above all, Edwards is a screenwriter pissed that his job is being farmed out to other people. But he's almost definitely right that "edgy" is no way to go with a Fraggle movie, and that it's likely the Weinsteins have no idea what kind of movie they want to make, only that they want it to make money. Either way, don't expect to see this thing emerge into production any time soon. With the script flying around in so many different directions, who knows how long it will take for them to come up with something usable.
