A week ago today, Omnilab Media and The Jim Henson Company announced Australian filmmakers Michael and Peter Spierig would be directing the long-mooted The Power of the Dark Crystal. ComingSoon.net caught up to the duo while they were touting the DVD and Blu-ray release of their vampire opus Daybreakers and pressed them for details on their plans for the Dark Crystal mythology.
“We had been talking to Henson for quite a while and went in talking about different projects,” said Peter of their initial conversations. “They showed us some concept material for ‘Dark Crystal’ and we absolutely flipped for it. It’s been such a big part of our childhood. They basically asked us if we were interested and we were like, are you kidding? It’s going to be our lives for a few years, maybe longer.”
The sequel marks a departure of sorts for the pair who are known for their bloody romps Undead and the aforementioned bloodsucker film starring Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe. But they say fans will definitely be able to feel the Spierig brother energy felt in those films throughout the Dark Crystal. “We wouldn’t attach ourselves to the material if it didn’t connect to our sensibilities,” Michael affirms. “To be honest, the first film is, when I was young, pretty scary stuff. This will certainly have scary elements to it. It’s not a horror film by any means, its just got a really solid mythology and solid idea. There are so many great characters. Great new characters and some of the favorites from the previous film will return. It’s not a remake. It’s a continuing story and we use the world of the first film to go further.”
Set hundreds of years after the events of the first movie when the world has once again fallen into darkness, The 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. The film will be in 3D.
