Per Collider, Anne Hathaway is in early talks to star in Warner Bros.‘ live-action Sesame Street movie. Jonathan Krisel, co-creator of Portlandia, is set to direct the project, which is now expected to be a musical. Shawn Levy is producing, as he’s been working on the project since 2012 when 20th Century Fox still held the rights.
Mike Rosolio penned the first draft of the script, with Chris Galletta writing the most recent version.
It’s unclear right now what the plot of the film will revolve around, but Hathaway is reportedly in negotiations for the role of Sally, which, coincidentally or not, happens to be the name of the very first person to appear on the show, who is given a tour of the titular street and introduced to now-famous characters such as Big Bird and Oscar The Grouch.
Sesame Street originally premiered in 1969 and quickly amassed millions of young fans and went on to become a cultural icon. Hathaway herself has actually appeared on the show before, in a 2007 Holiday-themed episode.
Warner Bros. has been keen to develop more family-orientated projects outside of their Fantastic Beasts and LEGO Movie franchises, and Sesame Street has the kind of built-in mass audience studios now salivate at the thought of, so this is a no-brainer, even if the idea of what a Sesame Street movie will actually look like is a little hard to fathom.
It’s also a move that makes sense for Hathaway, who looks to have been searching for a family-orientated film of her own for a while. She was previously attached to star in a live-action Barbie project at Sony, before that project changed studios – to Warner Bros., funnily enough – who quickly went and cast Margot Robbie in the lead role.
Hathaway seems like a better fit for the quirks of Sesame Street anyway, and if she signs on, this will be an interesting new avenue in her career, far different than anything we’ve seen from her before.
For example, she recently wrapped filming on Dee Rees‘ crime drama The Last Thing He Wanted, where she’ll star alongside Ben Affleck and Willem Dafoe, while she’ll next be seen in Steven Knight‘s thriller Serenity alongside Matthew McConaughey. She also recently signed on to appear in Amazon‘s anthology series Modern Love.
It seems unlikely she will be starring alongside any muppets in those projects.
#Peace.Love.SesameStreet
