Jonathan Krisel to Direct Sesame Street Movie

Jonathan Krisel to direct Sesame Street movie

Portlandia director and co-creator Jonathan Krisel (Baskets, Kroll Show) will be directing Warner Bros. Pictures’ live-action Sesame Street musical, Variety has confirmed.

Sesame Street, an educational series that premiered in 1969 on PBS and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morriset, features a combination of live-action and puppetry, as well as animation. It is best known as the home of Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, and Elmo, all created by Jim Henson.

The Sesame Street movie is being produced by Oscar nominee Shawn Levy (Arrival) alongside Michael Aguilar (Kidding). Krisel will be directing from a script penned by David Guion (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb) and Michael Handelman (Dinner for Schmucks). Sesame Workshop holds the right to the series and will be involved with project development.

Levy has been working on the movie since 2012 when 20th Century Fox previously held the rights to the big screen project. In 2015, Sesame Workshop signed a five-season deal with HBO and Warner Bros. began working on a film companion to the series.

Sesame Street has come to the big screen twice before: in 1985 with Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird and in 1999 with Elmo in Grouchland. The latest Sesame Street movie serves as Krisel’s first major studio movie after spending several years on the Emmy Award-winning series Portlandia.

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