The trio of sex abuse allegations ends ex-Sesame Street performer’s planned movie.
(Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)
The underage sex scandal that surrounded ex-Sesame Street puppeteer Kevin Clash cost him his childhood dream job in television that he held for nearly 30 years. Now, the fallout from the controversy seems to have ended the 52-year’s old budding chance at a Hollywood film career as well.
Vulture.com is reporting that Warner Bros. Pictures has completely nixed a planned feature film that was in development for Clash. This past summer and fall, the former Elmo puppeteer was hard at work developing a new character for the studio. According to a development document, the untitled project was a “Calvin and Hobbes kind of movie about a kid and his stuffed animal that takes on a life of its own because of the child’s imagination.” It was not known whether the movie would be live action or a mix of live action and animation, but per the document Clash would definitely, “incorporate puppets.”
Prior to the scandal breaking, Warner Bros. even put several high-profile producers on Clash’s project including Dan Lin, the producer of Sherlock Holmes, and Roy Lee, who's behind the upcoming family-friendly Lego: The Piece of Resistance.
Once the allegations of Clash’s sexual misconduct with three underage youths made headlines, the pre-production talks came to a screeching halt. No script had yet been written and an insider close to the project said because of the scandalous nature of the claims made against the puppeteer the film will most likely never get made. “After all that stuff happened, the studio was like, ‘We’re never going to mention this again,'” a production insider told Vulture.
It’s now unclear if Clash will try to shop his idea to another studio. One insider close to the project speculated it was doubtful that any movie company would still be currently interested in the film.
In 2011, Clash was the star and subject of a movie about his own life, Being Elmo. The documentary, which chronicled his rise a star puppeteer under muppet icon Jim Henson, was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.
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