Tina Fey in Talks to Join Disney's 'Muppets' Sequel

From The Hollywood Reporter,

Fey would re-team with her "Invention of Lying" co-star Ricky Gervais in the follow-up to the 2011 reboot of the Jim Henson franchise.

Days before she co-hosts the Golden Globes, Tina Fey is in late-stage negotiations to star as the female lead in Disney’s Muppets sequel, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Fey would join Ricky Gervais as the human stars of the movie, which sees the felt-and fur-lined puppets engaged in a European-set adventure. Modern Family star Ty Burrell also has a leading role.

The script is being kept secret but the character descriptions point to a caper. Burrell, as first revealed by THR, is playing a lazy Interpol inspector.

If a deal is concluded, Fey, according to sources, would play a Russian gulag prison guard.   

James Bobin, who directed the 2011 Muppets film, is back as helmer and co-wrote the screenplay with Nicholas Stoller.

David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, who produced Muppets, also are back to produce the sequel, which will shoot in London later this month.

Muppets 2 would mark one of Fey’s first feature appearances since 2010’s Date Night. She will next co-star opposite Paul Rudd in Admission, a comedy set for release in March. Fey worked with Gervais in 2009’s The Invention of Lying, which Gervais starred in and co-wrote and co-directed.