photo credit: Movie Trailers Source Youtube
You may have already seen the trailer for Melissa McCarthy’s new R-rated comedy. If not, watch the trailer below. Just be sure there are no kids around or else you’ll experience the same awkward situation many parents did when the trailer for Sausage Party played in a California movie theater full of children waiting to see Finding Dory.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Shortly after the trailer dropped, the makers of Sesame Street slapped the creators of this film with a lawsuit, in reference to the tag: “No Sesame, All Street”.
Happytime Murders is produced by STX Entertainment and Henson Alternative, a production and distribution brand under the Jim Henson Company. It’s directed by Jim Henson’s son Brian Henson, who also directed The Muppet Christmas Carol, Labyrinth, and Muppet Treasure Island.
According to the Associated Press, a hearing is scheduled for this week to “consider a request for immediate relief by Sesame Workshop, which sued in federal court in Manhattan for unspecified damages and an order forcing the film to be marketed differently.” Sesame Workshop wants the judge to order STX productions to not use any of Sesame Street’s trademarks and intellectual property, which includes the phrase, “No Sesame, All Street.”
So what’s the real reason for this lawsuit? Sesame believes that the marketing of this film will tarnish the Sesame Street image as they think viewers will be confused that Sesame endorsed this or that they created this movie.
I don’t think anyone will be confused. There have been adult muppet works for a while now, including the stage musical Avenue Q which is a very grown up version of Sesame Street created by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx.
Adam Fogelson, chairman of STX Films, says if the judge rules in Sesame’s favor and orders them to remove the tag that it could be “catastrophic” for the success of the film. He also brings a good point that the “No Sesame, All Street” tag is their humorous way of letting viewers know that Happytime Murders is in fact, not a Sesame Street production. The trailer has already been shown in over 5,000 theaters across the world. Fogelson says if Sesame Workshop wins the lawsuit, “STX would lose weeks of in-theater marketing and visibility on the internet” and could start off with a terrible launch in the box office.
But you know what they say: “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”. I think this lawsuit has gotten people more interested in the film regardless of the tag, at least me anyway.
