The Muppets film, "Muppets from Space", released by Columbia Pictures in 1999. In 2000, Henson was sold to EM.TV & Merchandising AG for $680 million. However, EM.TV was plagued with financial problems and the Henson family re-acquired the company in 2003, with the exception of the rights to the "Sesame Street" characters, which had been sold by EM.TV to Sesame Workshop. Fourteen years after initial negotiations began, Disney acquired the Muppets intellectual property from the Jim Henson Company for $75 million on February 17, 2004. The acquisition consisted of the Muppets and "Bear in the Big Blue House" properties, as well as
First Cut (TV series) First Cut (TV series) First Cut was initially a strand of thirty half-hour primetime documentaries commissioned by Channel 4 Commissioning Editor for Documentaries, Sarah Mulvey. It was added to the schedule to replace the old "Alt-TV" show, which launched many documentary makers' careers including Marc Isaacs, Olly Lambert, Emily James, Tina Gharavi, Paul Berczeller and Morgan Matthew. "First Cut" aimed to access the brightest and best new talent, allowing young directors to showcase their talent before being given further opportunities on Channel 4's flagship documentaries "Cutting Edge" and "Dispatches". After the completion of the initial two series (30 episodes), "First