before?” he says, incredulous, when we suggest
such a thing. “It ties toeverythingI’ve done. It’s
just another technique. This is not Punch And
Judy. I’ve done movies with creatures or
superheroes. I’ve done magic movies. This is
everything. It’s almost like the apex of what
I wanted to do. It’s because I’ve done all these
movies before that I can do a puppet show.”
Leterrier has been a fan ofThe Dark Crystal
since he was a child and it was he who
approached Lisa Henson to show an interest in
working on the film. “It’s a masterpiece,” he says.
“A crazy, original, emotional, artistic,
entertaining masterpiece.” For the long-delayed
follow-up, rather than bend his filmmaking style
to fit puppetry, he decided to bend puppetry to
fit his style. “Netflix asked me, ‘How do we
marry puppetry with your cinematic style,
swinging Steadicam and all that crazy stuff ?’
My answer was, ‘Let’s try it.’”
Leterrier shot a test sequence with a Skeksis
puppet and a CG Gelfling chasing each other
around a castle. “It showed us two things,” says
Leterrier. “One, that the cinematic style would
work, and two, that CG breaks puppetry. You
can use it to enhance puppetry but if you have a
full CG character it’s not theDark Crystalyou
remember.” The show uses CGI for backgrounds
and to augment some characters, but all of the
major characters are full puppets.
“Honestly, the biggest use of CG is removing
puppeteers,” says Henson. “That really changed
what we could do.” Not always having to hide
puppeteers under the set means that more
complex sequences can be shot — there will be
massive battles, chase scenes (traditionally
basically impossible with puppets given how
they’re controlled), flying sequences — and
bigger, more elaborate puppets than have ever
been possible before. There is a huge monster
made entirely of rocks and big psychic worm
things that stretch high above the set. “We’re
doing things that have never been done,” says
Leterrier, adding proudly, “There is nothing
we’ve tried that we didn’t succeed in doing.”CONJURING GHOSTS OF THE PAST
There are very few people still around who worked
on the originalDark Crystal.Age Of Resistance
has two powerful connections to the original:
Brian and Wendy Froud. Hired for the original by
Jim Henson, Brian Froud designed all the film’s
characters. Wendy was a lead sculptor and puppet
maker, crafting the lead characters, Jen and Kira.
Both have returned for the new show, Wendy as an
advisor to the creature shop and Brian once again
designing all the characters. Their son Toby —
who wasn’t born until two years after the original
came out; he played the baby Toby in the 1986 JimHenson movieLabyrinth— runs the creature shop
onAge Of Resistance. Every corner and surface is
filled with puppets. Enormous beetle-y Garthim
over six feet tall. A spiny tortoise in a cage, robotic
eyes assessing the scene. Countless Gelfling
wedged on upright poles with little respect for their
dignity. To the Frouds, this is home.
“It was exhilarating to finally be back on this,”
says Brian Froud, who has been consulted on
various attempts to resurrect the series. He’s one of
a tiny handful of people that remembers working
with the man who created this all. “We do miss
Jim [Henson],” he says. “When Jim died a great
light went out in the world, but everyone he
worked with was given a little bit of his spark.”
The Frouds tried to bring the spirit of Henson
to the production. “Initially everything was a bit
serious, because it was such a big production” says
Brian, so they tried to lighten the mood by
example. “There would be times when we’d realise
we hadn’t made enough creatures [for a scene],”
says Wendy. “We’d raid wastepaper baskets and
take out bits of foam. We’d sneak bits of plastic
plants off the set and cadge something together to
make all these strange creatures.”
“That was the spirit of Jim: having fun,” says
Brian. “People responded to that and once people
relaxed and started to play, Jim’s energy was there.”
Brian says that Leterrier, who was so intent
on respecting Henson’s vision that he watched ALAMY