The Muppets

The Muppets is a 2011 American musical comedy film directed by James Bobin (in his feature length directorial debut) from a screenplay written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. Produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, it is the seventh theatrical film featuring the Muppets. The film stars Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones as well as Muppet performers Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, Matt Vogel and Peter Linz. Bret McKenzie served as music supervisor, writing four of the film's five original songs, while Christophe Beck composed the score. In the film, devoted Muppet fan Walter, his human brother Gary and the latter's girlfriend Mary help Kermit the Frog reunite the disbanded Muppets in order to save the Muppet Theater from Tex Richman, a greedy oil magnate who plots to drill for oil on its former site.

Walt Disney Pictures announced development of a seventh Muppet film in March 2008, with Segel and Stoller as the screenwriters and Hoberman and Lieberman's Mandeville Films as co-producer. Conceived to serve as a creative reboot for the franchise after years of being largely out of the public eye following Disney's acquisition of the Muppets in 2004, Segel and Stoller intently addressed the Muppets' recent real-world lack of public exposure and fame in mainstream culture within the context of the film's story. As a result, The Muppets became the first film in the series to directly acknowledge The Muppet Show and reference plot points from previous Muppet films. Bobin was hired to direct in January 2010, and the film's supporting cast was filled out in October of the same year with the casting of Adams, Cooper and Jones. Filming took place from September 2010 to February 2011. The film was the first theatrical Muppets production to not star Frank Oz and Jerry Nelson performing their respective characters, although Nelson contributes an uncredited voice cameo. Instead, their roles are performed by Jacobson and Vogel, respectively, marking their theatrical feature film debut as those characters.