Back in August of last year, Jim Henson‘s son, Brian, revealed that Fraggle Rock and a sequel to The Dark Crystal were very much alive and in developmental stages.

A sequel to 1982’s Dark Crystal had been talked about for as long as can be remembered, but with little successful movement to show for it. When we last heard about it in the link above, all that was shared was that the sequel would be called The Power of the Dark Crystal, and it would take place centuries after the first film. Story-wise, it would be about a girl named Thurma — who is made of fire and lives at the center of the planet — who is on a mission to obtain a shard of the crystal in hopes of re-igniting the dying sun.

Now comes word via a press release sent out today that not only is the movie still alive, but it has a new director(s) and a new writer on board to make it happen. Brothers Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig have been signed to direct the movie, and Craig Pearce has been tapped to rework the script based on an earlier draft.

MTV Movies Blog recently chatted with Brian Henson — son of the late, great master of puppets, Jim Henson — who currently runs the Jim Henson Company with his sister Lisa. Among the topics discussed, Henson was asked about the reported Fraggle Rock movie that was in the works. And unlike most, he was happy to fill us in on not only where the Fraggle project stood, but also the sequel to The Dark Crystal that has been talked about in the past.

What we know about Fraggle Rock is not much, but it is known that it will involve a little adventure to what they called “outer space,” which was just out of their little cave in the real world where humans live. Henson added to that as well, saying music will be involved and that it will be developed for all audiences (considering most fans are now in their 20s and 30s) and not just children.

Click on over to see what Henson had to say about the two exciting projects.

Yes, I, along with many other children of the ’80s, loved me some Fraggle Rock. None of us knew what the shit they were, but they were awesome and they hung out with little Doozer dudes and ate all their construction materials between adventures to “outer space” where the old guy (who played the bartender with tourettes syndrome in The Boondock Saints named Doc, same as his character in Fraggle Rock, oh and who is already rumored for the movie on IMDB) hung out with his dog, OR to the other side where those gigantic puppets tried to catch and eat our beloved Fraggles. *Inhale* Good. *Exhale* Good! THAT is my recollection of Fraggle Rock, a show which I loved dearly, but do not remember much of the specifics of, given I was 2-6 years old when it was on HBO (Entourage circa 1983?).

Now comes word through Variety that after the successful sales of the first three seasons of the show on DVD, The Weinsteins have decided to give us a picture film! Cory Edwards (Hoodwinked) is writing and directing, which upsets a lot of people — I didn’t hate Hoodwinked, so we’ll see what happens. The Jim Henson Company with Lisa Henson and Brian Henson will produce the film and The Weinstein Co. will pack it up and ship it out.