Brian Froud Talks Dark Crystal Sequel

Expect your Gelf

Brian Froud Talks Dark Crystal Sequel

by Owen Williams |
Published on

A follow-up to Jim Henson and Frank Oz's The Dark Crystal has been in the works for several years now. A couple of years ago the news was that the project was tentatively titled The Power of the Dark Crystal, and that the plan was to blend old-skool puppetry and animatronics with animated CGI backgrounds.

We've not heard much since then, but Brian Froud, the artist whose beautiful concept art was integral to both** The Dark Crystal** and Labyrinth, has been speaking to Leicester Square Television, and has revealed (about five minutes into the clip) that the film is still "inching" towards production.

He and his wife Wendy state that they've been designing for the production, and talking with "the director", who, as far as we know, is still Genndy Tartakovsky, the Russian-born animator behind Samurai Jack, The Clone Wars and Dexter's Laboratory. He also worked on storyboards for Iron Man 2.

Born out of an ambitious but foundered plan to film The Lord of the Rings with puppets, Henson and Oz's 1982 The Dark Crystal saw the humanoid Gelflings aiding the mystical Ur-Ru against the evil and dessicated Skeksis, with the help of a one-eyed oracle and a weird sort of dog called Fizzgig. We're curious as to where a sequel would take us, given that [spoiler] the Skeksis and Ur-Ru no longer exist in those forms, the crystal is whole again and the land is at peace...

The Frouds promise some graphic novels in the meantime though. Maybe we'll pick up some clues there, as we wait for more news from The Henson Company.

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