Katherine Heigl is circling the female lead in puppet movie The Happytime Murders.

The former Grey's Anatomy actress is in talks to play a human in the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie will be directed by Brian Henson, whose dad is Muppets creator Jim Henson.

The dark film has been in the pipeline for several years and it was previously reported that Cameron Diaz was in the frame for a role.

The Happytime Murders is set in a world where humans and puppets co-exist, and follows a private eye who is called on to investigate after the puppet cast of a TV show start getting murdered one by one.

It's the second project One For The Money star Katherine has been linked to in the last few days. Last week it was reported that the 33-year-old is to play a psychologist in thriller Face Blind.