A biopic of Muppet creator Jim Henson is preparing to go before the cameras this summer.

A report hit the web today that Empire Films is planning a biographical movie about Jim Henson called “Henson”. According to the Muppet Newsflash, Empire plans to start production later this summer with a budget of $30-million and a release planned for sometime in 2009. No director or cast is attached to the project yet, but Empire is anticipating hiring “a major director, such as Penny Marshall” to helm the project with a “notable star cast in key roles”.

Assuming he’s a character in the script, they should totally cast David Cross to play Frank Oz. Speaking of which, would it be too weird to have Frank Oz directing this? Assuming he’d want to that is. There’s no word yet on whether or not the filmmakers have sought or secured the co-operation of the Henson Company, Disney and/or Sesame Workshop, each of which owns bits and pieces of the trademarks and copyrights on The Muppet characters and Jim’s other work. Disney’s cooperation especially (they own Kermit the Frog) would seem to be prerequisite to doing a film like this properly.