page_title: The Muppets (film)
section_title: Filming
hierarchical_section_title: The Muppets (film) / Production / Filming
caption_attribution_description: El Capitan Theater, Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California seen from the Kodak Theatre mall across Hollywood Boulevard
context_page_description: The Muppets is a 2011 American musical comedy film and the seventh theatrical film featuring the Muppets. The film was directed by James Bobin in his directorial debut, written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman and starred Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, and Rashida Jones, as well as Muppet performers Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, Matt Vogel, and Peter Linz. Bret McKenzie served as music supervisor, writing four of the film's five original songs, while Christophe Beck composed the film's score. In The Muppets, devoted Muppet fan Walter, his human brother Gary and Gary's girlfriend Mary help Kermit the Frog reunite the disbanded Muppets, as they must raise $10 million to save the Muppet Theater from Tex Richman, a businessman who plans to demolish the studio to drill for oil.
  Walt Disney Pictures first announced the film in March 2008, with Segel and Stoller as the screenwriters and Mandeville Films as co-producer. Bobin was hired to direct in January 2010, and the film's supporting cast was filled out in October of the same year with the casting of Adams, Cooper and Jones.
context_section_description: Principal photography for The Muppets started in late 2010, with the first set photos emerging in December 2010.
  The November 12, 2010, issue of Entertainment Weekly featured a spread about The Muppets, including a summary of the film's concept, quotes from Segel and Bobin, the first images of Walter, and new photos of the Muppets with Jason Segel.
  Hollywood Boulevard was closed for two nights in January 2011 to film a reprise of "Life's a Happy Song", the final musical number for the movie. According to /Film, the shoot involved Amy Adams, Jason Segel, and hundreds of extras performing an elaborate musical number outside the El Capitan Theatre. The Los Angeles Times also noted that other musical numbers would appear in the film, including Kermit singing his signature song, "Rainbow Connection", which he played on the same banjo that he used when he performed the song in The Muppet Movie.
  Universal Studios' Soundstage 28, most famous for containing the Paris Opera House set from The Phantom of the Opera, served as interiors for The Muppet Theater, whereas the El Capitan Theatre (with a digitally changed marquee) served as the exterior. Scenes set in Smalltown were filmed at the Warner Bros. Studios' backlot and Disney's Golden Oak Ranch, and the fictional "Muppet Studios" were filmed with exterior shots at the Jim Henson Company Lot and interior shots at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.
  Other filming locations included Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, Pink Palace Mansion in Bel Air, the Crossroads of the World, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and the City National Plaza in downtown Los Angeles (acting as the interior of Richman Oil's headquarters, although the Bank of America Center is represented instead). Scooter's scene in the Muppet reunion montage was filmed at Google's Zurich headquarters in Switzerland. Although principal photography was completed on February 11, 2011, on April 26, 2011, a second unit film crew traveled to Reno, Nevada to film some exterior shots, including a scene in the Bonanza Casino parking lot with some Muppet characters, and a small shot looking into the casino.
  The film required extensive blue-screen shots and matte backgrounds. In the scene where Walter is dancing atop a dresser, the puppeteers performed Walter's choreography while wearing blue costumes against a blue screen. The end result had the puppeteers completely gone from the final shot. Look Effects were responsible for those visual effects shots, whereas Legacy Effects designed the mechanics for '80s Robot. A majority of the Muppet characters were also completely rebuilt for the film.
caption: Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood was used as the exterior for the Muppet Theater.
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