EXCLUSIVE: John Mayer and McG are closing in to purchase the famed Jim Henson Studio lot and the Charlie Chaplin Studios at 1416 N. La Brea in Los Angeles. Sources are telling us this tonight. No buy worth was disclosed.
The Grammy-winning singer has places of work on the Jim Henson lot and makes use of the studio there to report, we hear. McG is the filmmaker behind the unique Sony Drew Barrymore-Cameron Diaz-Lucy Liu Charlie’s Angels motion pictures in addition to the Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy motion rom-com This Means Battle.
A rep for Jim Henson Firm declined remark. A rep for Mayer advised Deadline’s Dish that the singer and McG are beneath contract to purchase the Henson lot. Deadline reached out to a rep for McG. We’ll replace you once we hear again from them.
Triple observe: Disney doesn’t personal the Jim Henson lot, the Henson household does. There was buzz that the Church of Scientology was circling to purchase the property in early October, however Deadline discovered that wasn’t true.
A spokesperson for the Jim Henson household stated then: “With reference to current rumors concerning the sale of the La Brea studio lot, the Henson household just isn’t in any enterprise dealings with the Church of Scientology, and that group just isn’t in consideration as a possible purchaser of the property. It’s nonetheless the household’s intention to maneuver The Jim Henson Company to a brand new location it could possibly share with Jim Henson’s Creature Store, however presently the household just isn’t in escrow with any purchaser.”
The 80,000-square-foot facility included recording studios and, on the time of the Henson household buy in 2000, it contained Chaplin’s 10,000-square-foot sound stage and authentic woodworking store.
The Jim Henson Firm put the lot on the sale block in an effort to place the manufacturing firm and its Burbank-based Jim Henson’s Creature Store in a single facility, which the house at La Brea couldn’t accommodate. Chaplin shot his motion pictures The Child, The Gold Rush, Trendy Occasions and The Nice Dictator on the studio.
In 1952, Chaplin bought the property to actual property improvement agency Webb and Knapp, who in the end rented to characteristic productions like George Reeves’ Adventures of Superman. Pink Skelton bought the lot in 1960, and it was owned by CBS from 1962-1966. By1966, it was within the palms of Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ A&M Data.
