From Felix & Paul Studios: A Jim Henson Initiative

A limited series based on a script co-authored by late Muppets creator Jim Henson toplines a list of announcements coming from virtual reality producers Felix & Paul Studios. Its 35-project development slate explores everything from mental illness to the afterlife.

Although Henson is best known for Muppet characters (Kermit the Frog, Missy Piggy), he had a more experimental side, seen in short film “Time Piece” (1965) and hour-long teleplay “The Cube” (1969, shown above), which explored themes such as alienation and conformity. In that spirit he undertook “Tale of Sand,” which follows a man making his way through a dreamlike desert landscape, pursued by a one-eyed assassin.

Henson and frequent collaborator Jerry Juhl began working on the script in the 1960s and they put it aside in the mid-1970s, as “The Muppet Show” took off. In 2014, it was turned into as a graphic novel by artist Ramon Perez, and now screenwriter Jacob Chase is adapting it for a VR feature.

“You are with one actor for the whole movie, and it unfolds as you are experiencing it,” says Lisa Henson, CEO of the Jim Henson Co. “It’s a great part, and I hope we can find a very magnetic movie star to be in it.”