A pair of holiday season favorites from Jim Henson are coming to the big screen.

Fathom Events is bringing Jim Henson’s Holiday Special to theaters next month. The event includes the double feature of remastered holiday favorites, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas and The Bells of Fraggle Rock, as well as a bonus featurette.

You can find more info on the special event below, along with promo videos for both Emmet Otter and Fraggle Rock.

The long gestating Fraggle Rock movie has added the kind of star power it needs to finally get into production. Joseph Gordon-Levitt joins the film, based on the The Jim Henson Company’s franchise of the same name, as producer as star, this according to a new report from Variety.

Debuting in 1983, Henson described Fraggle Rock as “a high-energy, raucous musical romp” that is “silly” and “wonderful.” The series centered on “cave-dwelling creatures called Fraggles who have to deal with the industrious Doozers and furry giants called Gorgs,” all of whom lived in the underground world known as Fraggle Rock.

More on this, as well as a quote from Gordon-Levitt after the jump.

Variety is reporting that The Jim Henson Company has brought in the great Billy Crystal to write, produce, and star in an upcoming animated feature of theirs titled Which Witch. But it’s another teeny tiny bit of information that really stands out.

At the very bottom of the report, mentioned as a side note, is a list of projects currently being developed related to existing Henson properties. They include the Fraggle Rock movie we’ve heard about in the past, a sequel to The Dark Crystal that pops up in the news every now and again, a new movie based on the Emmet Otter character, and a sequel to the 1986 fantasy tale Labyrinth. Wait, what? A Labyrinth sequel?!

The Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is Fraggle Rock: Complete Series Collection for $37.49 (that’s (63% off the list price of $99.98).

Note, this deal is for today only until midnight PST while supplies last.

This 20-disc DVD box set collection contains all 96 episodes and 100 original songs from the 4-season run of the Jim Henson television series Fraggle Rock, which aired on HBO from 1983 to 1987, and includes over 8 hours of bonus content.

This version of the box set looks to be the 2008 Lionsgate repackaging edition, where each box is assembled all by hand (it takes two hours per box!) and special printing and techniques were used so that the colors match those of the Fraggle Rock world.

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.

Not too long ago, we got our first peek at the new Fraggle Rock comic book from the Jim Henson Company and Archaia Entertainment. According to the folks at Henson, this is just the beginning; they have plans to bring us new comic books based on puppet-fueled titles like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth as well!

Both Labyrinth and Crystal are also majorly beloved titles to those who grew up in the ’80s, and both have had comics based on them before by places like Marvel.

These two planned comics are still in the earliest of stages, but it looks as though first issues of one or both could be seen by sometime at the end of 2010 or maybe the beginning of 2011. At the moment, Fraggle Rock is the main focus of 2010.

The Jim Henson Company is responsible for the greatest puppet creations of all time, and they’re still going very strong. When word came that they would be heavily involved in the massive return of the Muppets as well as other puppet-related titles like a Dark Crystal sequel and a Fraggle Rock movie, we the children of the ’80s were elated.

While the various Muppet/puppet movies are still in development, other forms of entertainment are on the way to re-ignite an interest and an excitement in these worlds and the characters within them. One example of this is the brand new Fraggle Rock comic book by Jeffrey Brown that’s currently set for release in April. Fans will also have the chance to grab some Fraggle action when an issue is available during the beloved Free Comic Day.

Those of you who can’t wait will be happy to discover that MTV was able to get their hands on some goodies from the new series, including a look at the first cover and a sample of the Free Comic Book Day offering. Click the image above to see the cover of the first issue, and head over to the other side to check out the sample excerpt!

If you got the reference in the title, you’re awesome and we’re putting you right up on the fridge.

Many of us cool kids are children of the ’80s, and as such, one of the greatest forms of entertainment ever to be created, is the Muppets. The Muppets are a creation of the late genius Jim Henson, who built an army of funny and lovable puppet characters who appeared in a countless amount of TV shows, specials, movies, music videos, cartoons, and everything in between. As life moved on and new generations of kids showed up, the Muppets faded off slowly, but never completely disappeared, making delightful cameo appearances on shows and events from time to time. But now, thanks to the massive Disney D23 Expo, we’ve learned that the Muppets are coming back in a big way, and their ready to take over the world again!

Back in March of 2008, we learned that we would finally be getting a brand new Muppet movie, with Forgetting Sarah Marshall team Jason Segel and Nick Stoller joining the Jim Henson Company to write and direct a new movie. Not much else had been known about the project since that time, but Coming Soon was on hand at the Disney Expo and they passed along word that a title for this movie has been made official: The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made.

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.