Melissa McCarthy stars in the trailer for The Happytime Murders, a crude and vile, comedy mystery thriller… Muppets movie?
When former puppet TV stars begin to get murdered off, disgraced former cop-turned-private eye puppet Phil Philips (Bill Barretta) and Detective Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) take the case.
The first thing you’ll notice only a few seconds into this trailer is that this isn’t the Muppets you grew up with, or the ones your kids are watching.
The Happytime Murders features an abundance of crude adult comedy, reminiscent of films like 21 Jump Street (2012), The Hangover (2009) and Ted (2012).
Mixing this type of humour with puppet characters seems more of a gimmick than anything, but there were definitely laughs to be had in the first trailer.
Story-wise, The Happytime Murders appears to follow a fairly typical murder-mystery plot.
Whether or not the muppet/puppet gimmick and comedy hold up will come down to the writing, but we do at least have a talented cast on board, that alongside McCarthy and Barretta includes Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale and Elizabeth Banks.
The film is directed by Brian Henson, the son of Jim Henson, whose puppetry company started it all way back when.
This will be Brian Henson’s first adult feature film, after having directed more family-oriented Muppet movies like The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and Muppet Treasure Island (1996).
The Happytime Murders hits cinemas on 17 August 2018.
Check out the first red band trailer below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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