The Little Shop HORRORS

When Frank Oz first received a script for The Little Shop Of Horrors, he’d only directed one movie. Well, that’s not strictly true. While his first official stint in the director’s chair was for 1984’s The Muppets Take Manhattan, two years earlier he’d helped his long-time creative partner Jim Henson helm his creature-filled passion project The Dark Crystal; a sinister fantasy opus that left audiences and critics a little cold (at the time, at least). When mega-producer David Geffen suggested Oz’s second full-time directing gig should be an adaptation of lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken’s hit Off-Broadway musical about a giant alien plant with an insatiable bloodlust, he wasn’t exactly convinced. Music? Horror? Puppets? Humour? It felt a little too much, too soon.

However amid the bustle of his burgeoning solo career, Miss Piggy, Fozzie and Yoda’s real-life alter ego had overlooked the fact that he was perhaps the only person with the skills needed to bring this all-singing, all-dancing’s arduous shoot), he’d gained tenacious storytelling skills that even he didn’t know he had. With these thoughts lurking in the back of his mind, he agreed to take a look.