Jim Henson Company's "The Dark Crystal" Sequel Coming in 2011

NOTE: FRIDAY, Feb 12th 2010 UPDATE & CORRECTION AT END OF POST

I know "The Dark Crystal" isn't strictly a fairy tale but I know it appeals to many fairy tale enthusiasts so here's an update:

It's been some years since a sequel to Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal" (titled "The Power of the Dark Crystal") was announced and last week official news appeared for the first time in a couple of years about the production.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement at The Muppet Newsflash:

The project has undergone several reworkings and overhauls and is finally preparing to move out of pre-production. The film's epic screenplay was recently rewritten by screenwriter Craig Pearce ("Moulin Rouge!", "Romeo + Juliet"), and producer Lisa Henson says that the film now has a "really great script."

The Jim Henson Company is now partnering with Australian production company Omnilab Media to produce their "Dark Crystal" sequel. Henson previously partnered with Omnilab to produce the television series "Farscape" from 1999-2003. The Jim Henson Company is preparing to unveil some more concrete announcements very soon, so a lot more information should be rolling out in the not so distant future.

A little more information is available HERE, as well as old information and artwork from the initial sequel development.

Here's a sneak peek at some development artwork:

FRIDAY UPDATE:
The place I heard about this was actually Metafilter HERE, on February 5th THIS year, and I forgot to link to that sorry. (This is what happens when I try to blog in a hurry!) The announcement on the official blog and Muppet Newsflash are indeed a year old now and there has only been one little peep of news about it since, in August of 2009 HERE. I have put in a request for information about the film to the Henson Company/Muppet News but have yet to hear back from them. Here's hoping we get some news soon.