UPDATED: Michael Aguilar, Mark Gordon and Guymon Cassidy are also producing. Longtime show writer Joey Mazzarino in on board to pen the script.
20th Century Fox and Shawn Levy want to tell you how to get to Sesame Street.
The studio has picked up the movie rights to the long-running and iconic childrens television show for Levy and his 21 Laps banner to produce.
The educational series, which premiered in 1969, airs mostly on PBS stations and features a combination of live-action and puppetry, as well as animation. It is best known as the home of the Jim Henson creations Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and Elmo. It is estimated that about one in three Americans has watched the show, and the format is broadcast in dozens of countries. Sesame Street also has won 138 Emmys during its run.
The series has generated two previous big-screen adaptations, 1985s Follow That Bird and 1999s The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. Bird featured John Candy, Chevy Chase and Dave Thomas as well as the marquee puppets and was distributed by Warner Bros.
It is likely that Sesame Workshop, the company behind the show (and formerly known as Childrens Television Workshop), would be involved in a producer capacity as well.
Fox had no comment on the news.
Levy, the director of Night at the Museum, Date Night and Real Steel, is a eyeing a July start for his next movie, the Fox comedy The Internship, which will reteam Wedding Crashers stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. 21 Laps is producing the coming-of-age indie The Spectacular Now and the Fox 2000 Christmas comedy Alone for the Holidays.
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