Cool! The Jim Henson Company is working on a sequel to the 1982 fantasy puppet movie, The Dark Crystal called The Power of the Crystal. Apparently, this has been news for some time but I’m just now hearing about it.

I remember going to see the first movie with my brother when I was a kid. I don’t think it did very well in the intial release but I loved it. I have since bought it on DVD. It has quite a few “new age-ie” elements that I could do without but the story is action/adventure pitting good against evil.

The sequel is scheduled for a Spring 08 release.

It sounds very interesting:

In the late 1970s, with his creative instincts and Hollywood power swelling to their greatest levels up to that point, “Muppets” creator Jim Henson found himself obsessed with the dark, deranged work of English illustrator Brian Froud.

He befriended the children’s-book author and recruited longtime collaborator Frank Oz, and together the three spent the next half-decade developing an ambitious, human-free movie that would mix the world of Froud with equal parts “Lord of the Rings” and Kermit the Frog.

The result was 1982’s “The Dark Crystal,” a fantasy flick that debuted as a commercial and critical failure and has since lived on as a fondly remembered near-classic along the lines of ’80s movies such as “Tron” and “The Last Starfighter.” Frustrated by the limitations of technology, Henson, who died in 1990, took to discussing two different “Dark” visions in interviews: the film his imagination had longed for and the version hindered by fishing line and awkward action sequences.

Now, like a woodland creature called to action by Gelfling heroine Kira, “The Dark Crystal” is preparing to rise up again. And this time it has technology on its side, along with one of the hottest action directors in all of geekdom.

“I did television shows like ‘Dexter’s Laboratory,’ ‘The Powerpuff Girls,’ ‘Samurai Jack’ and ‘Clone Wars,’ and then I decided to go into features,” said highly stylized Russian director Genndy Tartakovsky, offering a preview of his upcoming film debut, “The Power of the Dark Crystal.” “I love the first movie. I saw it [when I was young], and it’s resonated with me throughout my life. Through all the jobs I’ve had, we always referred to it. We would go, ‘You remember that scene in “Dark Crystal”? That was great the way that shape was put in,’ or something like that. [I’m determined] not just to relive it, but also to honor it.”

Such a tribute would be impossible without remembering the man who was a quarter-century ahead of his time. And as the film enters production, it should be quite easy for Tartakovsky to remember Henson daily, since Henson’s daughter Lisa is producing.

“Puppetry has come a long way since ‘The Dark Crystal,’ ” said the amicable co-CEO of the Jim Henson Company. “When ‘The Dark Crystal’ was made, it was the first time that all those techniques were really refined to the degree that they could be put in a feature film. Since then, puppetry has come so far that the puppets we’re going to use are going to be much more emotive than the originals. In addition to that, we can augment them with digital effects, but very subtly.”

The “Power” script continues the tale of elfin heroes Jen and Kira, last seen returning the shard to the evil crystal and seemingly abolishing the vulture-like Skeksis from their land. Set many years after the first flick, “Power” casts Jen and Kira as king and queen, now overseeing a kingdom whose peace is disturbed by a visit from the underground-dwelling U-mun people. After the Gelflings refuse their request for a shard of crystal that could preserve the U-mun race, a desperate visitor takes it anyway, threatening their world with another thousand years of chaos.

‘Dark Crystal’ Sequel Gives Jim Henson’s Puppet Epic A Second Chance MTV.com