The Jim Henson Company’s historic collection, which began as Charlie Chaplin Studios in Los Angeles, has found a new buyer: John Mayer.
Yes, the singer-songwriter behind Daughters and Waiting on the World to Change has teamed up with director McG to purchase a sprawling lot located in the heart of Hollywood at 1416 N. La Brea Ave. The contract is currently under negotiation. FINALS. As of Monday night, TheWrap found out.
Mayer recorded his excellent 2021 album “Sob Rock” at Henson Recording Studios, part of the same group, and shot a preview video for “Last Train Home” (from “Sob Rock”) there.
Check out the recording below:
McG is best known for directing “Charlie’s Angels” starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore, as well as “Terminator Salvation,” “We Are Marshall” and this year’s Netflix teen epic “Uglies.”
Earlier this year, TheWrap exclusively reported that the piece was for sale. At the time, Jim Henson’s company, which no longer controls the rights to the Muppets but still owns things like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and The Storyteller, said the sale was “part of a much longer process. ” ” “. “It’s a long-term strategy to have the Jim Henson Company and Burbank-based Jim Henson’s Creature Shop under one roof, which is not possible in Hollywood because of the space the store requires.”
The lot was completed in 1919 by Chaplin and Henson’s headquarters has been located there since 2000. Brian Henson, president of The Jim Henson Company, said: “When we heard Chaplin’s lot was for sale, we had to have it. “It’s the perfect home for the Muppets and our own brand of elegant but whimsical entertainment.”
Once the Jim Henson Company moved in, the 80,000-square-foot facility was outfitted with new landscaping, bricks and paint. At the time, Henson still owned the Muppets. They also added a 12-foot statue of Kermit the Frog dressed as Chapin the Tramp, complete with top hat and cane.
Later that same year, they sold the characters to German group EM.TV Merchandising for $680 million, and then in 2004, they sold them to the Walt Disney Company for $89 million. The sale to Disney was, in some respects, doomed for a long time. Before Jim Henson’s untimely death in 1990, he intended to sell the company to Disney. When he died before the papers could be formalized, the deal collapsed. In 2004, Michael Eisner, who had supported Henson early in her television career and whose dream was for the characters to become part of Disney, finally got his wish, before being forced to leave Disney.
Since selling the Muppets to Disney, the Jim Henson Company has produced ambitious, high-fantasy projects such as Ned’s Land, The Dark Crystal: Age of the Resistance, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. The area has also become home to Puppet Up!, a live show with a more mature sense of humor that has become a staple of Los Angeles theater.
We’ve heard that one of the conditions of any buyer of the lot is to allow the Jim Henson Company to stay there until the end of 2025.
A source