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Sesame Street Season 45 premieres Monday September 15

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Dark Crystal sequel may be headed to DVD

The film has been in development since 2005 with a scheduled debut in the next 12-18 months; Henson continues to maintain their original vision for a theatrical release

By Phillip Chapman, Muppet Central
Updated: January 8, 2008

For the past year, news has been fairly quiet on Henson's development of the planned sequel to the beloved 1982 film, "The Dark Crystal". The Latino Review posted the following update about the forthcoming Dark Crystal sequel on it's web site.

...fans of the original Dark Crystal will be excited to know about a sequel also being released this year on DVD:

Set on the mythical planet Thra, the follow-up takes place years after the ending of the original and begins with Jen and Kira welcoming to their castle a guest from the center of the planet, Thurma the fire girl, who, in a desperate attempt to save her people, re-shatters the Crystal.

“The first few times it came up we thought it would be impossible because the first movie was such a huge production in its day. How could we even do something like that because it was such a huge undertaking the first time around?” admits [Lisa] Henson. “But then we started talking about a very interesting hybrid of puppets and CGI, and we realized it was doable and we got very excited about it.”

Queen Kira from the upcoming film, "The Power of the Dark Crystal".

What is most interesting about this report is the possibillity that "The Power of The Dark Crystal" may not be a theatrical release as many hoped and was initially announced. Instead, "The Power of The Dark Crystal" may be released immediately to DVD in late 2008 or early 2009.

Fans have hoped that "The Power of The Dark Crystal" and the announced Fraggle Rock movie would help to revolutionize the company that Jim Henson founded, however, questions now arise over how much success a made-for-DVD sequel can have. This news may also increase the possibility that the Fraggle Rock movie will become a direct-to-DVD release as well.

In May 2006, Brian Henson confirmed that “We are trying to pull the business pieces together on a Dark Crystal sequel. That one’s pretty far along. It’s got a good, strong script, a great vision for how to do it and we’re just trying to [put it together].”

Award-winning animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who created the hit series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory was announced as the director of "The Power of The Dark Crystal" in February 2006.

Variety originally reported that a sequel was in development in May 2005.

Editor's Note: Nicole Goldman, vice president of marketing and publicity for The Jim Henson Company has issued the following official statement related to the film's release.

“We are thrilled and grateful that fans are so interested in the progress of ‘Power of the Dark Crystal’ – an especially important project to us that will require great care and attention throughout the production process.  A project of this scale takes a lot of time and energy and we continue to work through the development phase, maintaining our original vision of a film for theatrical release that combines traditional puppetry and animatronics with cutting edge CG animation. We’ll be sure to keep fans up to date as more information is confirmed.”

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   MORE HENSON NEWS

• Jerry Nelson tribute at The Moving Image Museum October 27
• Jim Henson's Pajanimals debuts on NBC Kids Saturday July 7
• The New York Pops play The Muppets at Carnegie Hall April 14
• Henson announces "Sid the Science Kid: The Movie" in 3-D
• The Jim Henson Company Puppets to perform at the 2011 Grammys
• "Pioneers of Television" special to honor Jim Henson
• Classic "Henson's Place" special arrives on DVD August 3
• Frank Oz unveils tribute to the "Henson Pipes" at NBC Studios

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