A new film version of the children’s TV show Sesame Street is being developed by one of the producers of Arrival and Stranger Things.
Shawn Levy told ScreenRant about his plans for the film, which recently moved from Fox to Warner Bros and does not yet have a title.
“Sesame Street is at Warner Bros and we are right now working on a treatment for what I think is going to be a really imaginative and entertaining take on that beloved and decades-old global brand,” Levy said.
“The trick there is to honour these characters that are beloved, but in a movie that feels entertaining for the kids who we might bring to the movie – and humorous for those parents who bring their kids. It’s early – we’re still at the treatment stage, but very bullish on that.”
Levy is known for his role as producer on films such as the newly released Arrival, as well as Date Night, This is Where I Leave You and the Night at the Museum trilogy. He was also an executive producer and episode director on Netflix’s Stranger Things TV series, and will return for its second series.
Sesame Street follows the adventures of a group of monsters, talking animals and humans who live on a street in an unidentified neighbourhood of New York. It has been running for 46 years on US TV, and is one of the country’s most popular children’s shows. It was broadcast on PBS until 2016, when it moved to HBO.
There have been two previous film adaptations: 1985’s Follow That Bird, in which Big Bird attempts to return to Sesame Street after being sent to live with a family of dodos, and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, in which the street’s residents have to rescue the red monster after he is teleported to a land filled with unpleasant Grouches.
