Power of the Dark Crystal

thumb|300px|Concept art of Queen Kira and King Jen.
thumb|300px|Concept art of Thurma.
thumb|300px|Concept art
thumb|300px|Concept art
thumb|300px|Concept art
thumb|300px|Concept art
Power of the Dark Crystal was a proposed sequel to the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal.
Set hundreds of years after the events of the first movie when the world has once again fallen into darkness, "Power of the Dark Crystal" follows the adventures of a mysterious girl made of fire who, together with a Gelfling outcast, steals a shard of the legendary Crystal in an attempt to reignite the dying sun that exists at the center of the planet."Omnilab Media and The Jim Henson Company Join Forces to Launch the Australian Feature Production of the Highly Anticipated Power of the Dark Crystal". The Jim Henson Company. May 4, 2010.
After twelve years of development, the script for the film would finally end up being adapted into a 12 issue comic book series in 2017. Although the film never came to be, development on it with director Louis Leterrier eventually led to the creation of prequel series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.Abigail Chandler, You Absolute Muppet, SciFiNow, 161, 2019: 18-25.
==Early development and setbacks==
The film project was first announced in Variety in May 2005 when the Jim Henson Company bought a script by David Odell and Annette Duffy."Dark sequel crystalizes. Odell, Duffy penned script; no helmer attached", Adam Dawtrey, Variety. May 13, 2005.
In January 2006, the Henson Company announced that Orphange Animation Studio would be providing CG animation elements and named Orphanage's Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack) as director for the film."Henson taps Dark lord; Helmer becomes Crystal clear", Variety, Michael Fleming. January 31, 2006.
Brian Froud, the designer of the original film, worked with the Henson Company on concept art for the new film. Tartakovsky and Froud appeared with Lisa Henson and Michael Polis to talk about the film at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2006."The Jim Henson Presentation at Comic-Con!", Comingsoon.net, Scott Chitwood. July 22, 2006. Froud's concept art for Queen Kira was featured on the cover of Cinefantastique."Power of the Dark Crystal makes Cinefantastique's cover", July 20, 2006. More concept art was revealed in October 2006, accompanying an article on MTV.com."Dark Crystal Sequel Gives Jim Henson's Puppet Epic a Second Chance", MTV.com, Larry Carroll. October 4, 2006.
The MTV.com article provided a plot summary:
Lisa Henson announced at Comic-Con 2007 that the production had hit a "setback":
Indie director Shane Abbess was attached as a director for some years after the 2007 release of his film Gabriel.RGM Artists bio Speaking in 2015 of his experience working on the failed project, Abbess told The Guardian "When I quit The Dark Crystal it was because I’d fallen in love with Jim’s handwritten notes on what his sequel idea was. All I wanted to do, for the fans and for myself, was shoot his version of the film. But nobody gave a shit about what Jim Henson wanted."The Guardian "Shane Abbess: Infini film marks return of Aussie science fiction's prodigal son" by Luke Buckmaster, May 13, 2015
During this time Henson worked to adjust the film's script. At one point Cory Edwards was asked to work on a rewrite of the script for the sequel. While a deal never came together for Edwards, he says that the offer led to conversations with the studio that resulted in him being picked as writer/director for the Fraggle Rock movie.Full Circle Stuff: A Conversation with Cory Edwards
Nicole Goldman, the Henson Company's VP of Marketing and Publicity, responded to fans' inquires as to the status of the project on the Jim Henson Company Podcast in January 2008, stating:
PotDC-Sketch2.jpg|The Dying forest
PotDC-Sketch3.jpg|The Frozen Lava River
PotDC-Sketch4.jpg|The Gravitational Devide
PotDC-Sketch4.jpg|The Inner Sun
PotDC-Sketch1.jpg|The Campsite-Innercave
==Partnership with Omnilab Media==
On February 4, 2009, The Muppet Newsflash reported that development on the project was still underway, with Craig Pearce (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!) having completed a rewrite of the screenplay, with the Australian company Omnilab Media set to co-produce."Dark Crystal Sequel Update", The Muppet Newsflash, Greg James. February 4, 2009. It was later confirmed by a May 2010 press release that Omnilab Media and The Jim Henson Company were teaming up to bring the film to the big screen and that Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig (writers and directors of "Undead" and "Daybreakers") would be directing the project, using the screenplay written by Pearce which was based on the original script by Duffy and Odell. The 2010 announcement also reaffirmed Froud's involvement as conceptual designer on the project.
The film was planned to be produced and released in stereoscopic 3D using a mix of live-action and traditional puppetry combined with visual and special effects. Digital effects would have been produced by Omnilab Media's Australia-based production arm, Ambience Entertainment. Omnilab-affiliated Iloura ("Where the Wild Things Are," "The Pacific," "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark") had started work on the film's CGI elements as of May 2010.
In the May 2010 press release, Lisa Henson commented on the Company's partnership with Omilab Media and the Spierg brothers:
In a November 2010 interview, the Spierig brothers acknowledged that audiences may be growing skeptical about remakes and sequels. Peter Spierig said, "Where we can, we're keeping to the spirit of Henson... We went to a convention not so long ago and we had a number of people come up and say, 'Don't you dare rape my childhood.' When one person says that, you take it on board. But when a bunch of people say it, you think, 'Wow, this really means something to them.'" Michael Spierig added, "so the last thing we want to do is screw it up."Dalton, Trent. Dark Crystal sequel directors Peter and Michael Spierig keep it real with Muppets. The Courier-Mail. November 18, 2010.
Lisa Henson spoke of the production in a December 2010 interview, stating:
At the Museum of Moving Image in Astoria Queens in July, 2011, Craig Shemin was asked how things were going with the movie. He explained that the film was still in development, but it was unlikely they would start filming soon.
At the "Jim Henson: Friends and Family Panel" at the Museum of the Moving Image in September 2011, Cheryl Henson was asked about the upcoming film. She stated that the project had been put on hold until further notice.
==Fate==
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In February 2012, it was officially announced that the project was no longer in production.If Magazine "The Dark Crystal sequel, The Power of the Dark Crystal, on hiatus" by Brendan Swift, 2/8/12 Apparently no one told Tartakovsky. He was still uncertain about the status in October 2012: "I haven't heard from the Dark Crystal people in a long time, so I feel that's gone."Larnick, Eric. "Five Things We Learned From Genndy Tartakovsky About Popeye, Samurai Jack & The Future of Animation", Comics Alliance, 1 October 2012. It was around this period that French director Louis Leterrier approached the Henson Company, hoping to use his industry connections to help get the film seen and greenlit by studio executives. When this did not pan out, Leterrier and the company shifted focus to developing a prequel series.
In March 2014, Brian Henson gave an update on the status of the project while promoting Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge confirming that "We have one written. It's really good. We don't have a production schedule or anything. It's a big movie to put all the pieces together."Setoodeh, Ramin. "Brian Henson on His New Reality Show, the ‘Fraggle Rock’ Movie and More", Variety, 25 March 2014. Later that May, in an interview with Vulture, Lisa Henson confirmed the project was still in development, though not yet in pre-production, with current focus on what she described as "interactive world-building".Watkins, Gwynne. "Checking in on The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Other Jim Henson Company Franchises", Vulture, 16 May 2014.
==Sources==
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Category:Unfinished Movies
Category:Unfinished Dark Crystal