Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Released	April 18, 2008
Duration	112 minutes
Director	Nicholas Stoller
Written by	Jason Segel
Music	Lyle Workman
Studio	Universal
Rated	R

Segel and Danforth perform the Henson Dracula puppet on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Segel and Danforth perform the Dracula puppet on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a romantic comedy, directed by Nicholas Stoller and produced by Judd Apatow, focusing on struggling musician Peter Bretter (Jason Segel). After celebrity girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) dumps him, Peter goes to Hawaii to forget, but can't get away from her, finally finding a new love in hotel employee Rachel (Mila Kunis).

In a climatic set piece, Peter writes and stages a puppet musical version of Dracula called A Taste for Love, assisted by his step-brother Brian. Jim Henson's Creature Shop provided the Dracula puppets performed by the characters. The Creature Shop created four soft foam full body puppets with eye mechanisms - Dracula, Van Helsing, the angel and the succubus. Additionally, the Creature Shop created five dancing mummies for the final number. The dancing mummies were four life size body puppets with mouth mechanisms in a line, controlled by puppeteer in the middle dressed as a mummy.

Peter Brooke served as creative supervisor and Michael Oosterom acted as production supervisor. The puppet entourage, made with fleece, included Count Dracula, Professor Van Helsing, a succubus (resembling the Sarah Marshall character), and an angel (modeled after Rachel), among others. The Henson puppeteers trained Segel, who sang and performed live as Dracula while Bill Hader (as Brian) sang and operated Van Helsing. Brooke noted that "We were concerned that the main hero puppet of Dracula was going to be performed by an actor, and not a professional puppeteer. But Jason is amazing and has taken to puppeteering like a duck to water." Henson puppeteers, some of whom appeared on-screen, operated the other characters and assisted Segel and Hader.

The Dracula puppet was later performed by Segel and Nathan Danforth on the 1,000th episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on December 15, 2009.

It was working on this movie with Jim Henson's Creature Shop that inspired Jason Segel and Nick Stoller to write and produce The Muppets for Disney.

References

• In a Twitter post dated January 26, 2012, as part of the Ask Kermit promotion for the United Kingdom premiere of The Muppets, Kermit tweeted about Jason Segel, "He was fun and I understand I inspired his opening scene in Sarah Marshall…..think about it!"

Muppet Mentions

Russell Brand in a bonus scene, spoofing Sesame Street.

• One scene in the movie features Peter weeping uncontrollably while he sings, and plays on the piano, the theme to The Muppet Show. This scene was later used to promote the movie in post-release television spots.

• Dwayne, the bartender, urges Rachel to attend Peter's puppet musical, adding that he likes puppets, such as Fraggle Rock, Lamb Chop and Sesame Street’s Mr. Snuffleupagus and Ernie and Bert.

• The film's publicity campaign created several fictional websites to promote the movie. The website ihatesarahmarshall.com, Peter's anti-Sarah blog, features a link to the Muppet fansite MuppetCentral.com.

Cast

• Jason Segel as Peter Bretter
• Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall
• Mila Kunis as Rachel Jansen
• Russell Brand as Aldous Snow
• Bill Hader as Brian Bretter
• Steve Landesberg as Dr. Rosenbaum
• Jason Bateman as Animal Instincts Detective
• Jonah Hill as Matthew the Waiter
• Paul Rudd as Chuck
• Gedde Watanabe as the Hotel Manager

Puppeteers

• Carol Binion
• Tim Blaney
• Julianne Buescher as the angel
• Leslie Carrara Rudolph as one of Dracula's brides
• BJ Guyer
• Sean Johnson as the five dancing mummies
• Scott Land
• Drew Massey as Dracula's right hand
• Michael Oosterom
• Michelan Sisti
• Kevin Carlson
• Victor Yerrid as Van Helsing's right hand

External links

• Official website
• Henderson Nevada - Reprint of Universal Studios Production Notes
• Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime, official in-universe website
• Sarah Marshall Fan, official in-universe website
• ihatesarahmarshall, official in-universe website