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In 37 years of existence of the iconic "The Dark Crystal" emblem of Jim Henson, it has become a touchstone for fantastic moviegoers. Now a new series brings us back to the world of Thra. Beginning on Netflix on August 30, Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance" has fallen behind – and it was worth it.
Set several years before the film's events, the series is a family fable resonating for a dark age of misinformation, expressed by a cast featuring artists such as Helena Bonham Carter, Mark Hamill, Simon Pegg and Awkwafina.
Salon recently met two of the people who helped bring the series to life: executive producer Lisa Henson and director Louis Leterrier ("Now You See Me", "The Shock of the Titans" and the first two "Transporter" films) ) about the adventure update and the lasting power of the puppet.
Watch our conversation here or read the questions and answers below.
This series is such a beautiful piece of tale. For all those who are familiar with the Henson verse, it hits you so hard, because it's so true to the look and feel of the original movie. It's nostalgic, but it's also modern and fresh.
Lisa, this world has been part of your life for so long. Your father started thinking about the original "Dark Crystal" almost ten years before the film was made. Can you talk a bit about the origins of this unique, special and strange world?
Lisa Henson: He actually worked for years in research and development, working with designer Brian Froud, an illustrator whose work he loved. He brought Brian to New York and started with the puppetry workshop and Brian experimented with different types of puppetry techniques to translate this illustrated look into design. And he had something so unusual that does not exist today, a financial benefactor named Lew Grade, who basically gave him a blank check for development.
One of the reasons the world of "The Dark Crystal" is so rich and elaborate is because they had had years to work on it before they even really worked on the screenplay. The script was one of the last things to set up on the original "Dark Crystal". We are now able to fall back on all this construction of the world.
People are talking a lot about creative creation now in a creative way, but to have an exciting fantasy world, you really need to have a credible and convincing world for that to happen.
All the techniques that became the main animatronic techniques of the eighties and nineties, all this was really developed for "The Dark Crystal". This animatronics workshop was the first of its kind. All we needed today to do the show was done in this period of blue sky.
It's a revolutionary film in many ways, and it becomes another revolutionary achievement. All this work has certainly marked you, Louis. This is your original story.
Louis Leterrier: It's a movie, and it's a relationship that many people have with the movie. We have all seen this movie do not expect to see anything so huge and beautiful and quite shocking. It was so scary in a way that it struck me in a place that completely upset my artistic and narrative abilities.
Everyone is a storyteller. We are born storytellers. But this film, there were no actors, but it was clearly tactile. This was not a cartoon. When I was young, there was no CG, but it was either a cartoon world building, a cartoon or a film world building.
"Star Wars" was out, but then it was all puppets, all tactile. You understood that it was that, but you completely forgot that you were watching puppets, then you entered this world. Frankly, for me, I never left it.
So, how was it to get the job and to be able to do it? Did you have to lobby?
Henson: No, we like it. He did not have to lobby hard.
Leterrier: It was a dream. I come from France. I had made some films that were successful. I have never made a French film in France. I was doing almost fake American films in France and they were successful, which opened the door to big Hollywood producers.
So, my agent says, "Oh, who do you want to meet, Steven Spielberg, everyone?" I was like: "No, I would like to meet my childhood hero or his kids." We had an extraordinary general meeting in Hollywood, where you talk about everything and how you grew up and what you fell in love with. A bit like this conversation.
Then very quickly, I explained to Lisa that I made this movie "Clash of Titans". We talked about Greek mythology, many creatures, the construction of the world and textures. I was showing to my team because every time new people on the movie were saying, "Look at The Dark Crystal." That's what I would like to do. "
I say it to Lisa and Lisa says, "Well, we're actually trying to do a sequel for a few years. Would you be interested, would you like to collaborate with us and try to make this reality a reality?
I immediately agreed, hit me after. I was like, "Oh, no." Because, let's imagine, if I'm the guy who ruins "Dark Crystal", I thought, "No, stupid Frenchman. Why did you say yes? It was nine years ago. We started working on it, working very hard.
As Lisa said, yes, it's a wonderful world, but it all starts with an idea, starts with a script and we started developing the script. Then we continued, continued, continued.
Henson: And then Netflix.
Netflix said they were interested in a series of ten episodes. They asked us if it could look like a feature film. It was really shocking moment. "Will we really be able to do so much" Dark Crystal ", not just the feature film we were talking about, but a big premium TV show with a huge story?"
Our leaders at Netflix, from Cindy Holland to Ted Biaselli and Carolina Garcia, are the ones who can really benefit from this opportunity. It was a brave gesture to give the go-ahead to this kind of project that nobody ever does like anywhere else.
You can see ambition every minute. I was talking to someone this morning about the series. He said, "Oh, I'm sure it's great, but it must be all in CGI." And I said, "Oh, no."
It was a very important priority that it be as authentic as possible, even if you used a lot of modern techniques. The puppets are all real. You even kept original documents even in the London area, where other objects had been sent to museums, but these peripheral materials …
Henson: We were able to find shots of sets and props that had been built. Of course, all our puppets were in archives and could be referenced. So yes, archival, we could really support that.
Because you felt that somewhere on the way you would be called again?
Henson: Oh, I planned it. It's been 15 years that I plan to do something, either a suite of "Dark Crystal" or a suite. When we closed our Creature Shop in Camden, London, we had so much in store. Everyone said, "You have to get rid of what's stored as much as possible." I said, "Yes, but nothing says" Dark Crystal. "We keep everything. And it was really good that we did it.
The puppets were thus built from these originals, and in reference?
Henson: Some come back, but we have a much, much bigger cast – 75 puppets and so many Gelfling, where there was originally only two. That's why we brought Brian Froud, our true genetic lineage, back to the original Dark Crystal movie, which designed everything.
Leterrier: Brian Froud is the designer. Wendy Froud, his wife, is a beautiful story of love. They met on the original movie, they fell in love.
Henson: He designed everything, painted. She carved the characters of Gelfling.
Leterrier: She made them pretty. He likes scary and she likes pretty ones. Both of them are perfect. They made a child. This child is called Toby Froud. Little Toby Froud is the baby of "Labyrinth", the one projected by David Bowie. And Wendy, Brian and Toby worked on our show "Dark Crystal". It was an incredibly fluid relationship, and everything went through them, and on the set.
You took puppet lessons. Why was it important to you?
Leterrier: I had obviously made a lot of films before, but puppet theater is a completely different art. You know how it goes, but if you dive into this world, you realize you do not know anything.
And then Netflix, we have to give credit to our leaders because they never see their names anywhere. Without them, there would not be this show, not me, because they loved and understood what was going to happen. Cindy Holland told us, "Why do not you do a little test, we know what" The Dark Crystal "looks like, we know that Henson's Creaton Shop, how amazing their puppets are. what your movies look like and your dynamic approach to the scenes How do the two work together? Take a little test. "
So we said to ourselves, "Okay, well, we'll make some moves." "No, build a complete puppet, make a complete short film."
Henson: A test that would give the complete look of the series. It was a big investment and smart to do.
Leterrier: It was an incredibly smart investment. We have all learned. I learned the most, but we all learned what to do with it.
Henson: We had some ideas on merging more CGs that we ended up using on the series. We realized that it was not a good idea and that what would look better, it would be all the puppets. After our tests, we went to look for more puppets on the screen.
And in the end, it has the right texture.
Leterrier: It's about textures; it's a very performance issue. During the shooting of the series, we also understood that we had to gather an incredible number of puppeteers, a main group of puppeteers. They are the ones who bring these characters to life, but everything you see on the screen is alive with them, from the plants to the birds to the trees, because we've all been on stage. We shot for a year in a small industrial scene in South London. Nothing has been pulled to the outside.
You must imagine bringing life to everything. It's the job of the puppeteers. It's something I've learned from you, Lisa. During the casting, I said to myself, "Yes, just ask the available people." She's like, "No, no, no, no, that person is ideal for that, that person is ideal for that."
Henson: We have found incredible puppeteers who are so subtle and have such nuanced abilities. Many of these puppeteers were not the main puppeteers in other shows. Most of them are not the tracks of the Muppets. They have a very special, almost magical ability to bring emotion in the most delicate way to their puppets. Some of the puppeteers were shocked that they even had the tracks. They did not expect it, and suddenly they realized that they were going to have ten episodes on their shoulders. But they all went incredibly well. They were intuitive, really special, special interpreters.
I am someone familiar with this world, who enters without knowing it, but a feeling, a real emotion. You have this very strong fan base that has really been the main reason for the persistence of this movie. It was not a huge success when he came out. He has become bigger and bigger over the years. The base of his fans is very strong, and then you have people who have absolutely no idea what that is.
How do you tell a story that allows both groups to have different experiences while having the impression of "I understand what is happening"?
Henson: They are really our writers. We have an excellent team of writers and they came to that task, as opposed to the film we were developing or which was part of The Henson Company. They came from this outside point of view to develop this television series, and I think they kept in mind, very effectively, how to develop the main characters that would bring you to the world.
They focused on three main characters from very different backgrounds. The first episode and the second, we really want people to watch one and two together. Each of these characters is a gateway to the world, so you do not need to know everything about Gelfling and what they are trying to achieve.
Looking at it, it's this world that really started in the 70's. Yet when you see this story about hope, about resistance, about misinformation, about the threat of darkness, about the environment itself, it seems extremely relevant and timely. What makes this story both classic and modern?
Leterrier: The themes were there, 37 years ago. We have just developed on them. It's the idea of ​​preserving your planet, finding balance, respecting yourself. These themes were dear to the hearts of Jim Henson and Brian Froud, then they followed and created this film which is almost the point of exclamation at the end of a long sentence. We just had to fill in the gaps.
Henson: Moreover, as we are in a fantastic world, it allows us to be a little big in our metaphors. We just have to tell a captivating story, then allow people to find their own metaphors. It's a world where the Gelfling are threatened by very bad bad guys. The Skeksis are extraordinary villains, and they [the Gelfling] are becoming aware. The show deals largely with awareness. What should you do when you realize what's going on?
I think it's a great conversation for families watching the series together. We really think the show is great for family watching. There are a few spooky things for little kids, but if you look with parents, it's a good way to deal with dark and dark things because it's not really adult in that sense. It's not too dark
I really like it as well to find the truth. Who says the truth and who misleads you? It is very important to teach our children. Can you count on what we tell you, no matter who it comes from? That seems really helpful to us right now.
Leterrier: The phantasmagorical nature of the question was important to me, and then I spread it a little more. I'm sure we were a bit scared. But for children, it's a good thing, because that's when they ask their parents why and want to open up to them. It's a relationship that I had with fables when I was growing up in horror movies when I was growing up and books. That's what we want families to experience. It's really a show to live together, to stop and maybe have a conversation. That's the idea.
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