Katherine Heigl in Talks for THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS

Actress in line for puppet comedy.

It has been a while since we heard anything new on The Jim Henson Company’s ‘The Happytime Murders,’ a film noir puppet comedy that mixes ‘Avenue Q’ with ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’ Now Variety is reporting that Katherine Heigl is in final negotiations to join the film for a role previously linked to Cameron Diaz.

The comedy is set in a world populated by a mix of human characters and puppets, but with the puppets viewed as second-class citizens. When the puppet cast of a 1980s kids TV show gets murdered one by one, a disgraced detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.

Brian Henson (‘Muppet Treasure Island,’ ‘A Muppet Christmas Carol’) is attached to direct with a script by ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ scribe Todd Berger, based on a story he co-wrote with Dee Robertson.