A few weeks ago, a picture surfaced on Entertainment Weekly’s website which appeared to be an alternate version of a photo they published in a piece about the new Muppet movie. The alternate version included director James Bobin and Jason Segel’s co-writer Nick Stoller… but more intriguingly, it also included Bret McKenzie, a New Zealand actor/musician who comprises one half of the very funny band Flight of the Conchords.
We’ve been speculating as to what this meant… Is he writing the songs in the movie? Does he appear onscreen? It wouldn’t be too surprising, considering Bobin co-created the Conchords TV show and directed several episodes. Now we have an answer, from this article on Stuff.co.nz, which focuses on McKenzie’s next movie but also devotes a few lines to his role on the film, which is apparently “music supervisor.” And it says he “contributed several songs.”
So this is good news. A Muppet movie should have songs that are catchy, clever, and funny, and McKenzie (with his Flight of the Conchords buddy Jemaine Clement) has written dozens of songs that are catchy, clever and funny. So this means the new songs are pretty much guaranteed to be better than “I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus.”
In case you’re not familiar with FotC, here’s a delightful Bret-centric song:
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by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
