The Sesame Street Movie just became one major step closer to reality. Warner Bros. has reportedly tapped Portlandia director and creator Jonathan Krisel to helm the movie based on the long-running and popular children's series. The script is currently being polished by Chris Galletta, who wrote the most recent draft for the studio. The pieces of the puzzle seem to finally be sliding into place on this one as it's not closer than ever to officially getting the green light.

Jonathan Krisel makes for a rather interesting choice. He doesn't have much, if any, feature directing experience. However, he has directed a ton of TV, such as Man Seeking Woman, Saturday Night Live, Kroll Show and Baskets. He also doesn't seem to have much in the way of experience with more kid-friendly content, which would seem important when it comes to Sesame Street, in particular. But that's not to say Krisel doesn't have that up his sleeve. It's perhaps just a side of his creative muscle he's yet to have the opportunity to flex on a major project. Also of note; it's expected that this will be a musical.

In any case, this is a bit step in the right direction when it comes to seeing Big Bird and the gang doing it up on the big screen. This project has been in development for quite some time, dating back to when 20th Century Fox had the rights. When the Sesame Workshop, who controls the rights to the series, signed a five-year deal to bring the show to HBO after spending decades on PBS, the movie shifted to HBO's parent company Warner Bros., which has given it new life. Stranger Things producer and co-creator Shawn Levy is on board as a producer and has been since the project was at Fox.

In recent years, Warner Bros. has given major priority to the DC universe, attempting to mirror what Disney has done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That's been something of a mixed bag and, though the studio is still putting a serious emphasis on franchises moving forward, specifically DC, they're still interested in making family-friendly movies that have the chance to bring in big bucks. Sesame Street, if executed correctly, could be just such a movie.

The long-running educational series has been on the air since 1969 and features characters such as Bert and Ernie (who have been subject to quite a bit of discussion online recently), Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, and Elmo. This won't be the first time that the Jim Henson creations have been featured in a movie. Previous efforts include 1985's Follow That Bird and 1999's The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. However, neither of those movies were hits at the box office and it's been nearly two decades. The Sesame Street movie does not yet have an official title or release date. This news was first reported by Variety.