The historic Jim Henson Company lot, which started life 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 partnered with filmmaker McG to purchase the sprawling lot, located in the heart of Hollywood at 1416 N. La Brea Ave. The contract is in final negotiations as of Monday night, TheWrap has learned.
Mayer recorded his excellent 2021 album “Sob Rock” at Henson Recording Studios, part of the same lot, and filmed a performance video for “Last Train Home” (from the “Sob Rock”) album there.
Watch that recording below:
McG is best known for directing the “Charlie’s Angels” movies starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore, along with “Terminator Salvation,” “We Are Marshall” and this year’s Netflix YA epic, “Uglies.”
Earlier this year, TheWrap exclusively reported that the lot was up for sale. At the time, the Jim Henson Company, which no longer controls the rights to the Muppets but does still own things like “Labyrinth,” “The Dark Crystal” and “The Storyteller,” stated that the sale was “part of a much longer-term strategy to have The Jim Henson Company and our renowned Burbank-based Jim Henson’s Creature Shop under one roof, which is not feasible in Hollywood due to the space the Shop requires.”
The lot was completed in 1919 by Chaplin and the Henson Company was headquartered there beginning in 2000. At the time, Brian Henson, chairman of the Jim Henson Company, said, “When we heard the Chaplin lot was for sale, we had to have it. It’s the perfect home for the Muppets and our particular brand of classy but eccentric entertainment.”
Once the Jim Henson Company moved in, the 80,000-square-foot facility was outfitted with new landscaping, brickwork and paint palettes. At the time, Henson still owned the Muppets. They also added a 12-foot statue of Kermit the Frog dressed as Chapin character The Tramp, complete with top hat and cane.
Later that same year they would sell the characters to a German conglomerate EM.TV Merchandising for $680 million and then, in 2004, sell them to the Walt Disney Company for $89 million.
The sale to Disney was, in some ways, fated long ago. Right before Jim Henson’s untimely death in 1990, he had intended to sell the company to Disney. When he died before the paperwork could be formalized, the deal was dissolved. In 2004, Michael Eisner, who had supported Henson in his early career in television and whose dream was to have the characters become part of Disney, finally got his wish, just before he was forced out of Disney.
Since the sale of the Muppets to Disney, the Jim Henson Company has produced ambitious, highly imaginative projects like “Earth to Ned,” “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” and “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” The lot has also become the home to Puppet Up!, a live show involving more mature humor that has become a theatrical staple in Los Angeles.
We have heard that one of the conditions of any purchaser of the lot is to allow the Jim Henson Company to stay there through the end of 2025.
