All of the sesame is definitely gone in this brand-new very street red band trailer for Melissa McCarthy’sThe Happytime Murders. The movie hits theaters at the end of this month and it’s looking to be pretty unique, likeWho Framed Roger Rabbit, but with puppets, drugs, violence, and over-the-top sexual references instead of animation and traces of family decency.The Happytime Murdersis proud of its NSFW status, wearing it like a giant badge of honor. Though, we do admit, Peter Jackson’s Meet the Feebles did get here first.
The Happytime MurdersstarsMelissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale, and Elizabeth Banks. The filthy comedy, directed by Brian Henson, recently saw itself insome legal troubleafter the studio behindSesame Streetattempted to sue STX Entertainment for referencing the popular kids show in its marketing campaign. However,Sesame Streetlost that legal battle andThe Happytime Murdershas been gleefully trolling the iconic show even further in its promotional campaign, captioning posters with: “From the studio that was sued bySesame Street…”
The Happytime Murdersis set in thedark underbelly of Los Angeleswhere puppets and humans live together. Two clashing detectives, one human and one puppet, are forced to work together to try and solve who is brutally murdering the former cast of “The Happytime Gang,” a beloved classic puppet show. The new red band trailer for the movie shows some of the aforementioned puppets getting blown apart by a shotgun, reducing them to stuffing. In another scene, Melissa McCarthy can be seen snorting drugs with a bunch of sexually charged puppets, which is both humorous and disturbing at the same time.
The Happytime Murderswas first announced in 2008 to be in development by the Jim Henson Company. The film was later picked up by Lionsgate in 2010 and originally had Cameron Diaz attached to star. The actress dropped out of the role in 2011, which then saw Katherine Heigl in talks to replace Diaz. It wasn’t until 2015 that the project was picked up by STX Entertainment, who then set out to rewrite the film. Jamie Foxx circled the movie for a time and then it was finally announced in 2017 that Melissa McCarthy was taking on the role. With McCarthy in place, the rest of the cast rapidly fell into place.
Production onThe Happytime Murdersbegan back in September of 2017 and saw over 120 puppets used for the film, forty of which were custom built. As with must productions involving puppets, the sets were all raised to accommodate the puppeteers, who were able to stand up to complete their work. This gave the real-life actors small portions of the set to stand on. The movie was originally supposed to hit theaters on August 17th, but waspushed back one week to August 24th. While we wait forThe Happytime Murdersto hit the big screen, you can watch the brand-new NSFW red band trailer below, thanks to the STX YouTube channel.
