It’s not been a good couple of months for Kevin Clash, the man who for 28 years worked on Sesame Street and was the puppeteer and voice behind Elmo. He’s been hit with several claims that he’s engaged with underage sex with young men, which resulted in him resigning permanently from the children’s show that’s long been part of his life.
Now he’s had more bad news, as Vulture reports that Warner Bros. has dropped a proposed puppet feature that Clash was developing. The former Sesame Street-er began putting together the project last summer, which would have revolved around a newly created character.
A brief description of the story, as described in a leaked development document, says it would have been, ‘A Calvin and Hobbes kind of movie about a kid and his stuffed animal that takes on a life of its own because of the child’s imagination.’
The unnamed lead puppet character was reportedly inspired by the WB’s Ralph Phillips, who appeared in a series of 1950s Looney Tunes short films.
Kevin Clash could still potentially shop the project to other studios, but with legal action still hanging over his head, and no guarantee others won’t emerge making claims, it’s tough to imagine anyone would want to touch it at the moment.
It should be noted that while several claims of underage sex have been made, nothing has been proved.