According to this month's SFX the Jim Henson Company are prepping to film a sequel to the 80's fantasy film The Dark Crystal and going against current trends it will be made with puppets and not computers.

Brian Froud, the conceptual artist for the first film, is back on board and the story has been developed with the help of David Odell who co-wrote the original.

The story is set a number of years after the original and although it will feature an aged Jen and Kira, the heroes of the sequel will be new and from a different species.

The Skeksis, the Garthim and Olgra will all return.

Production is expected to start early next year.

k'hoo-waal

yipeee!!

-m0r

I heard about this. Froud may be on board but surely this runs as much risk of pissing on memories as any Star Wars prequel.

WOO-HOO i love the dark crystal its awesome. and im glad its going to be made with puppets it just wouldnt be the same and i wonder who or what the new heroes will be and the Skeksis (if theyre the bad guys, its been so long i cant remember) are really stupidly scary

Mr. Glass-Is-Half-Empty!

You are right though, there is a possibility of that, but I trust Brian Henson to make to make sure things don't go the way of the pear.

I heard that Hensons had folded...

If not, this sounds interesting, and their superb puppets should make a refreshing change from the smoother-than-a-chocolate-covered-poo look of most CGI.

I believe Disney bought them, which makes me very very worried about this...

They haven't folded - that I'm aware of anyway.

A large German media company bought them out a few years back only for Brian Henson to buy up the company again (and quite cheaply) at some point thereafter.

I think the last I heard was that Henson had sold the rights to the Muppets to Disney but everything else was still under their control (I believe he sold the Muppets to bank-roll future projects - not sure on that though).

Anyway, if all the above is true, that brings us nicely back to: The Dark Crystal Part II!

YEAH!!!!!! Now that's film worth owning. My dad recorded it for me years ago and still have the VHS. Just.

*Adds dark crystal dvd to wish list on Amazon*

I trust that whoever takes control would be a DC fan, so I have faith. Besides the special affects these days are better than twenty years ago. It'll look fab.

All this plundering of precious childhood memories, and they still can't fricking make Indiana Jones 4.

Sorry, off-topic. Anyway, this could be interesting. Frank Oz needs a decent role that doesn't involve grunting whilst his on-screen persona bounces around like so many be-pogo-sticked kids on sugar benders.

Indiana Jones should not be touched. I'd have to fly to america to be sick on Lucas and Spielberg, then, and I imagine they're not the easiest people to get hold of.

Indeed. Especially if they are covered with sick.

Indy 4 would indeed be pants, just as Lethal Weapon 4 was utterly pants.


As for Dark Crystal II, wahey. I would exclaim louder, but I have yet to see the first one.

Would this officially be the longest stretch between original film and sequel ever? How long was it between Chinatown and The Two Jakes?