Jim Henson Company head Brian Henson has been talking for awhile now about how he wanted to use the company’s talents to do more adult projects. He dipped his toe into that by creating one of the greatest science fiction shows in history, “Farscape”. But of course since it was good, no one watched and after a few seasons on Sci-Fi it was cancelled
Well, having sold off all of their children’s characters like Kermit to Disney, the venerable Jim Henson Company is giving it another shot, this time with The Dark Crystal. Easily their most artistically pure and fantastically beautiful pieces of work, the 1982 film featured an all muppet cast in a rather dark tale about a fantastical world filled with unique creatures. The cast was comprised entirely of Muppets, but not necessarily of the cute and cuddly variety found on Sesame Street. If you’re any kind of film fan, the Dark Crystal making of documentary attached to it on video is an absolute must see.
On the flipside of that, I’m not sure how great the story was. Though the film is an artistic marvel the narrative is pretty weak. Maybe they’ll finally fix that, since according to Variety Henson Company has a sequel in the works entitled The Power of the Dark Crystal. Written by David Odell (who wrote the original film) and Annette Duffy (who picked up a pen just yesterday) the film will combine live-action animatronic/puppet powered characters with the hideous cinema blight known as CGI. The fact that they’d dip to CGI is a bit disappointing, but perhaps they’ll only use it sparingly.
Slated for a 2007 release, the story picks up many years after the original, with metrosexual hero Jen and fag-hag Kira as king and queen fighting to save their kingdom when the crystal is again split in two. Get some super-glue will you?
In the hunt for more revenue, the Jim Henson Company is developing a whole line of Dark Crystal related media including an animated series and games. That Dark Crystal DVD must have sold like gangbusters.
