A Fanmade poster of an Untitled Sesame Street Film (2023).
The Untitled Sesame Street film is an upcoming musical fantasy family film that is based on the children's show, Sesame Street, it is directed by Jonathan Krisel, and will be written by Joan Ganz Cooney, Jonathan Krisel, and Lloyd Morrisett Jr. It will be distributed by Universal Studios, and the music will be written by Scott Wittman. This movie is currently set to be released on December 20th, 2023.
Plot[]
Big Bird and his Sesame Street friends are mysteriously expelled from their neighborhood, finding themselves in Manhattan. They team up with a plucky history show host Sally Hawthorne (Anne Hathaway) who's on a quest to save her show and prove that Sesame Street actually exists, with obstacles created by the "evil" Mayor, with reasons of his own for keeping Sesame Street hidden from the world.
Cast[]
- Anne Hathaway as Sally Hawthorne
- Chance The Rapper
- Ryan Gosling
- Emma Watson
- Colin Farrell (rumored)
Voice Cast[]
- Matt Vogel as Big Bird/Count Von Count
- Kevin Clash as Elmo
- Frank Oz as Bert/Cookie Monster/Grover
- Eric Jacobson as Oscar The Grouch
- Steve Whitmire as Ernie
- Carmen Osbahr as Rosita
- Jennifer Barnhart as Zoe
- Stacey Gordon as Julia
- Kathleen Kim as Ji-Young
- Leslie Carrara-Rudolph as Abby
- Martin Robinson as Telly
- Frankie Cordero as Rudy
Development History[]
On June 19, 2012, The Hollywood Reporter announced that a new Sesame Street movie was in the works to be produced by 20th Century Fox. Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) was set to produce from a script by head Sesame Street writer Joey Mazzarino. The article also listed Michael Aguilar (Unaccompanied Minors), Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy, Saving Private Ryan) and Guymon Casady (Game of Thrones) as producers.
In April 2015, The Tracking Board reported that the film had moved to Universal. with Levy now directing as well as producing. The move to another studio prompted a search for new screenwriters who would center the script around an adventure set in New York City.
One year later, Levy signed on to direct a remake of Starman, leaving the Sesame Street movie without a director. Since the time of the initial announcement, Mazzarino had also moved on from Sesame Workshop, leaving the project without a writer.
In November 2016, Levy, promoting the release of Arrival (Amy Adams), noted that he was still developing a Sesame Street movie at Universal. On November 15th, Deadline reported that screenwriters had been found in David Guion and Michael Handelman (who had worked together on The Ex, Dinner for Schmucks, and Night at the Museum 3), with Mark Gordon still attached to produce, as well as Jesse Ehrman (This Is Where I Leave You with Tina Fey and Jason Bateman).
In September 2018, Variety reported that Jonathan Krisel, director and co-creator of the show Portlandia, was attached to direct, with Levy still producing. The article also mentioned that the film is set to be a musical, and that there have been multiple scripts drafted; the first by Mike Rosolio with a later version by Chris Galletta.
Collider reported in December 2018, that Anne Hathaway was being considered for the role of Sally in the film. In February of 2019, Hathaway's involvement was confirmed by Krisel — still attached to direct; mentioned also as the movie's writer now — in an article for The Hollywood Reporter. The article reiterated the project's intention as a musical and added that the plot would take inspiration from a line in the "Sesame Street Theme" — "Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?" — "with characters getting lost in NYC and trying to find their way back to Sesame Street." Filming is expected to begin in late summer 2019.
In March 2019, the film's release date of January 15, 2021 was officially announced. Variety also reported that MGM would be co-financing the film.
In June 2019, Deadline reported that Bo Burnham had been recruited to write songs for the film. In addition to reporting that the current draft of the film was written by Barry Schwartz, the outlet also detailed the plot of the film
“Big Bird and his Sesame Street friends are mysteriously expelled from their neighborhood, finding themselves in Manhattan. They team up with a plucky history show host Sally Hawthorne who’s on a quest to save her show and prove that Sesame Street actually exists, with obstacles created by the “evil” Mayor, with reasons of his own for keeping Sesame Street hidden from the world.”
The Wrap reported in June 2019 that filming would begin in April of 2020, setting it back nine months from its original production start which was to have been July 2019. Their sources referenced a change in Hathaway's schedule on a remake of The Witches as the reason for the delay (which wrapped production in September 2019).
The following month, The Wrap reported that the film's debut had been pushed back five months to a summer release on June 4, 2021.
The Hollywood Reporter announced in December 2019 that the release date had been pushed back yet again by another seven months to January 14, 2022.
In March 2020, Collider published an exclusive report that Chance the Rapper was in negotiations to appear in a featured role in the film, playing the Mayor's aide.
Production was set to begin in April 2020, but was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
On September 2021, the movie has got a new release date, which will be December 20th, 2023, with production set to begin in Summer 2022.
On January 2022, it was announced that Ryan Gosling and Emma Watson was in negotiations to be in the new Sesame Street film.
Release[]
The film will be released for the Christmas holiday of 2023.