Pictured above: freakish sewer rat, midget burn victims
  • Pictured above: freakish sewer rat, midget burn victims

Attention stoners and Muppet fetishists! io9 has the details on a new Dark Crystal movie. This flick's been rumored for a while—last I heard, Genndy Tartakovsky was attached, but apparently that version's fallen apart, 'cause now the Spierig Brothers (Undead, Daybreakers) are attached to direct. From the official press release:

Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig, writers and directors of Undead and most recently, Daybreakers, have come aboard to direct the screenplay written by Australian Craig Pearce (Moulin Rouge, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet) based on an original script by Annette Duffy and David Odell. The legendary fantasy artist Brian Froud will reprise his role as conceptual designer of the film, which will use a stunning mix of live action and traditional puppetry combined with visual and special effects produced entirely in Australia.

SHIT YEAH AUSTRALIA REPRESENT!!! Anyway, both The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, as incredibly overplayed in Portland as they are, are still pretty impressive reminders of when kids movies were creepy and weird and trippy—and while I'm not a huge fan of the gelflings, which just look like fucked-up midget burn victims, I do dig the rich, intricate, hippie-fied world that Brian Froud, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz created in the original Crystal. The imaginative, go-for-broke Spierigs (check out Undead and Daybreakers, both are weird and gory and silly and fun) seem like a pretty great pick to take over this universe. If they're smart, they'll cater this film directly to the nostalgia/grown-up crowd—anyone want to bet this'll have an April 20, 2012 release date?