| Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Kirk R. Thatcher |
| Screenplay by | Tim Burns Christopher Baldi |
| Story by | Jim Henson Jerry Juhl Kirk R. Thatcher |
| Produced by | Ritamarie Peruggi Harvey Kahn |
| Starring | Mary Steenburgen Jay Harrington Graham Verchere Genevieve Buechner Reese Alexander Gabe Khouth Peter New Linden Banks Chris "Ludacris" Bridges |
| Narrated by | Ludacris |
| Cinematography | Randal Platt |
| Edited by | Richard Schwadel |
| Music by | Mick Giacchino |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Lifetime |
Release date | November 21, 2015 |
Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Turkey Hollow, also known as Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow, is a 2015 Thanksgiving television film created by The Jim Henson Company and aired on Lifetime.
A recently divorced man named Ron Emmerson (Jay Harrington) takes his children Tim (Graham Verchere) and Annie (Genevieve Buechner) to the farm of Ron's eccentric Aunt Cly (Mary Steenburgen) in the town of Turkey Hollow which has no technology. Tim and Annie find themselves caught up in searching for the "Howling Hoodoo," an elusive monster that has been considered a legend to the citizens of Turkey Hollow while also coming across the plot of the scheming neighbor Eldridge Slump that frames Aunt Cly for the theft of the turkeys. With the aid of some new creature friends named Squonk, Zorp, Burble, and Thring, the Emmersons must expose Slump's plot and save the day.
Kirk Thatcher cameos in a photo as Uncle Ned.
Turkey Hollow started out as a story called "The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow" which was written by Jerry Juhl as one of Jim Henson's proposed specials.[1] The original production phase of "The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow" made it as far as puppet design where some of them were built and still exist in the archives. Photos of Lisa Henson and Cheryl Henson were taken in Jim Henson's back yard as a test to see how the puppets would look in the real world outside of a sound stage. The intention was to shoot the special on location.[2] In 2014, "The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow" was adapted into a graphic novel.[3]
When Turkey Hollow went into production, the original puppets in storage were refurbished by Jim Henson's Creature Shop with their designs updated by Robert Bennett (the winner of Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge) as seen in the Google+ Hangout tour.[4] Principal photography was set to begin in the spring of 2015 in Nova Scotia, Canada.[5] Because of a new tax credit, production on the special moved to Front Street Pictures in Vancouver where filming began on June 8, 2015.[6]