Turkey Hollow
Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow is a 2015 Thanksgiving television film created by The [Jim Henson Company] and aired on Lifetime on November 21, 2015. The film is directed by Kirk R. Thatcher, adapted by Tim Burns and Christopher Baldi from a story by Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl, and Kirk Thatcher, narrated by Ludacris, and starring Mary Steenburgen, Jay Harrington, Graham Verchere, Genevieve Buechner, Reese Alexander, Gabe Khouth, Peter New, and Linden Banks. The television film was met with mixed reviews.
Plot
As part of the Thanksgiving holidays, a recently divorced man named Ron Emmerson takes his children Tim and Annie to the farm of Ron's eccentric Aunt Cly in the town of Turkey Hollow, which has no modern technology. Tim and Annie find themselves caught up in searching for the "Howling Hoodoo," an elusive 10 ft. 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 and his farmworker minions Buzz and Junior that involves illegal turkeys activities and a plot for Eldridge to claim Aunt Cly's farm. 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.Cast
- Mary Steenburgen – Aunt Cly
- Jay Harrington – Ron Emmerson
- Genevieve Buechner – Annie Emmerson
- Graham Verchere – Tim Emmerson
- Ludacris – Narrator
- Reese Alexander – Sheriff Grover
- Linden Banks – Eldridge Slump
- Gabe Khouth - Buzz
- Peter New - Junior
- Elliot Mandelcorn - Lawyer
- Kathryn Kirkpatrick - Shopkeeper
Note
cameos in a photo as Uncle Ned.Puppeteers
- Alice Dinnean – Squonk
- Jason Hopley – Zorp
- Rob Mills – Burble
- Gord Robertson – Thrinng
Additional Puppeteers
- Jeny Cassady
- Morris Chapdelaine
- Kellie Haines
- Paul Hooson
- Geoff Redknap
- James Rowley
Production
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. 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 backyard 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. In 2014, "The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow" was adapted into a graphic novel.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 and Peter Brooke, the fabrication done by Julie Zobel, and the animatronics provided by John Criswell as seen in the Google+ Hangout tour. Principal photography was set to begin in the spring of 2015 in Nova Scotia, Canada. Because of a new tax credit, production on the special moved to Front Street Pictures in Vancouver where filming began on June 8, 2015.