A documentary that focuses on Caroll Spinney will be released by Tribeca Films during the first quarter of next year. If the name Caroll Spinney doesn’t ring a bell, I’ll bet the characters he has played since 1969 will: Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, of “Sesame Street” fame.
“I Am Big Bird” gives a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of the octogenarian, who is still going strong. The film, produced and directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker, includes footage of Spinney’s earliest work with the late Jim Henson, as well more recent performances.
* In other movie news, “Gangster Squad” director Ruben Fleischer has been signed to helm a film about Leo Sharp, the 90-year-old Indiana man caught running drugs for Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and sent to prison despite his advanced age. Sharp, an award-winning horticulturist and decorated World War II veteran, was caught by federal agents in 2011 while transporting $3 million in cocaine on the Michigan interstate in his pickup truck. It turned out Sharp was one of the cartel’s busiest couriers. The Fleischer film will be based on Sam Dolnick’s New York Times Magazine story.
