Brian Henson talks Dark Crystal II and Fraggle Rock film
 

Henson Company co-CEO Brian Henson got on the phone with Now Playing recently to promote the DVD release of the first two seasons of the animatronic sitcom Dinosaurs. And it didn’t take long for him to begin spilling secrets about his upcoming projects. First up is the “Battleground” episode of Stephen King’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes for TNT.

A Henson doing Stephen King? What gives? “Well, I’ve always wanted to do something not for kids and I basically got to really exercise that on Farscape,” Henson says. “So Farscape was my big adult thing that I did and I did that for a lot of years. In continuing along that line, I did this ‘Battleground’ for Nightmares and Dreamscapes and I think I will do more drama/science fiction in the sort of X-Files vein as well as quite likely doing some more science fiction. I’m also enjoying some adult comedy. I think I would likely do some cool puppet pieces that are puppets but doing adult material.”

But don’t look for any evil puppets in “Battleground.” “There are characters [but] they’re not really puppets. They’re CG characters and costumes. It’s basically about a guy who gets hunted down in his apartment by a box of toy soldiers.”

In even bigger news for children of the 1980s, the Henson Company is doing a feature length Fraggle Rock movie. “I think we announced that we’re trying to develop a Fraggle Rock movie a little bit earlier than we’re doing it. Yes, we’re writing a Fraggle Rock movie and trying to pull it together.”

It’s been so long that they may have to reintroduce the origin story of the Fraggles, but devotees need not worry about a cheap remake. “I think it was more realizing the Fraggles in a slightly different environment. It was to do something that sort of stands next to Fraggle Rock rather than [is] a continuation of [it].”

You’ll see all your favorite Fraggles, and you won’t even be able to tell that the original puppets have been lost to mothballs. “Well, we have to rebuild them because they’re old, but it would be with a lot of those characters, definitely.”

On the front burner for Henson is a sequel to the cult classic The Dark Crystal. “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].”

Much of the talent involved with the original Dark Crystal has left the Henson Company, so recreating that world will take more than just rebuilding the puppets. “For Dark Crystal, almost none of the voices were actually the puppeteers, so they were mostly voice artists. Where characters need to have the same voice we would likely try to find those voice artists or look for other voice artists.”

If Dark Crystal 2 happens, the obvious follow-up to Labyrinth would not be far behind. But Henson’s not thinking of an outright sequel for that world. “Actually, we’re talking about doing something different with Labyrinth but I can’t really talk about it. So we’re not really working on a sequel for Labyrinth right now, but Dark Crystal we are.”

http://www.muppetcentral.com/news/2006/050306.shtml

Raph's Girl note: I've read that in Labrynth II they might have Jennifer Connelly as the mother.

I'd like to see it all happen. I'd also like to not see the characters pimped out to product marketers, but that's just me.

Doesn't look like Sprocket is on the cast list but that could easily change...

The plot of the film is that the Fraggles have an adventure in outer space (the human relm).

The following Fraggles are listed as being in it:
Boober
Mokey
Red
Gobo
Wembley

Either way 2007 is gonna be a fun year...just look at all we get to look forward to:
Fraggle Rock
TMNT
Aristocats II
Alien vs Predator II,
Peter Pan and the Starcatchers
Dallas (starring John Travolta as J.R Ewing... :lol: )
Die Hard 4
Finding Rin Tin Tin
Fantastic Four 2
Flash Gordon
Hawaii Five 0
Hellboy 2
Iron Man
Indiana Jones 4 (unless it's pushed back another year)
The Simpsons
Logan's Run
Magneto
Magnum P.I
Nancy Drew (starring Emma Roberts)
Ocean's 13 (Was there ever an oceans 1-10? )
Pac Man
Pirates of the Carribean 3
Police Academy
Rambo IV (this December Rocky 6 will be out...)
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (who woulda thought a couple years ago that Pres. Roosevelt would be played by Leo De Caprio..)
The Ring 3
Rush Hour 3 (cuz we just can't get enough of Jackie Chan)
Scary Movie 5
Shrek 3 aka Shrek The 3rd (Now if only Justin Timberlake wasn't voicing King Arthur..ugh)
Sin City 2 (with Sin City 3 scheduled to be out in 2008)
Son of the Morning Star (A theatrical remake of a made for tv movie that came out in 1991. It's about the life of George Armstrong Custer. I hope they cast somebody good to play Custer cuz the 1991 film is one of my faves)
Spiderman 3 (with more villians than you can shake a stick at)
Superhero! (a spoof of all the superhero films out)
The 3 Stooges (Jeff Daniels is in negotiations to play Larry)
Transformers Movie (ok so far they've only cast the humans...yeesh)
Wolverine
Storm
Wonder Woman
Young Hannibal (a prequel to all the Hannibal Lecter films)

And these are just SOME of the movies coming out next year! Yeesh! Im gonna be living in the movie theatre!

Holy...Theres a PAC-MAN movie coming out?!

Yep... Not sure if it's animated or CGI tho. But somebody made a fan film of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWL6j0SvqV0 :lol:

How can they do a Fraggle movie without Sprocket? :)

Hmm... I probably shouldn't say that.

magnum Pi ?! :D

*Swoon* :anime:


You can't make a Fraggle Rock Movie without Sprocket!!!! :P

Yay! I loved the show when I was a kid.

COWABUNGA!....I mean...YAY:D !

Travolta's J.R? That I gotta see!

Yay!

Yay!

YAY!!!!!!! I loved the first two movies, can't wait to see this!

YAY!

She's getting her own movie huh? Neat, she's my favorite X-Men next to Rogue and Logan.

Joss Whendon's making this one, so you know it's gonna kick ass.

We got a lot of great movies coming out in 2007, I'm looking forward to it.

Storm shouldnt get her own movie, that's ****ing dumb
But it'd be funnier if the Wolverine movie was called WOLVERINE: Logan's Run

No. Damn it, just no.

And the Pac-Man movie thing is a joke. I think.

I've known about the Fraggle movie since last year. A lot of Muppet related projects have vanished, but I'm glad this will be getting made. In fact, this fall, Season 2 of Fraggle Rock will be released, and it will have a movie preview as a special feature.