The timing of this is coincidentally weird but Tri-Star has announced that they have locked a deal with the Jim Henson Co. to produce a remake of Labyrinth, the 1986 fantasy film that starred Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie. The new film will be written by Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy), according to THR.
The original film was the last movie that Jim Henson directed and featured a script from Terry Jones (“Monty Python”) along with George Lucas (Star Wars) acting as executive producer.
Labyrinth followed teenage girl Sarah (Connelly) as she enters the world of the Goblin-King (Bowie) after her baby brother was kidnapped. Sarah must navigate a gigantic maze and interact with multiple creatures, some of whom want to help her while others want to stop her.
The movie was, if you can believe it, actually a box office flop, earning just barely over half its budget. It took years for the film to earn the cult phenomenon status that it celebrates today.
I haven’t seen Labyrinth in several years, so I don’t know how I feel about this. The original was incredibly imaginative and innovative but I don’t know how that will translate into today’s day and age. I was extremely excited for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland only to check it out and see that it was all CGI that felt lifeless and, perhaps the worst of all, “safe” and “sane”. I can only hope that Tri-Star really recognizes where the magic of Labyrinth came from and invest wisely into creating something that honors the original. Fingers crossed and crotch bulged!