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 workplaces 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 films 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 informed Deadline’s Dish that the singer and McG are underneath contract to purchase the Henson lot. Deadline reached out to a rep for McG. We’ll replace you after we hear again from them.
Triple word: 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 mentioned 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 Firm to a brand new location it may share with Jim Henson’s Creature Store, however right now 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 area at La Brea couldn’t accommodate. Chaplin shot his films The Child, The Gold Rush, Trendy Occasions and The Nice Dictator on the studio.
In 1952, Chaplin offered the property to actual property growth agency Webb and Knapp, who finally rented to function productions like George Reeves’ Adventures of Superman. Purple 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.
