Scott Derrickson has signed on to direct a sequel to the 1986 film Labyrinth, according to Deadline. The film will be written by Maggie Levin, the writer/director of Hulu’s Into the Dark and My Valentine.
Jim Henson directed the original Labyrinth, which featured David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King, who takes a baby named Toby away from his half-sister Sarah (played by Jennifer Connelly), who had wished that he would be taken away. She immediately regrets her wish, and works to navigate a labyrinth to win him back. The film has since become a cult classic, spawning a novelization and comic adaptations over the years.
Derrickson confirmed the news on Twitter.
The latest… https://t.co/5Ijy2Ug5MB
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) May 26, 2020
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Derrickson comes to the project after a busy couple of years. In January, he left the sequel to Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, over creative differences with Marvel. (Sam Raimi has since picked up the reins for that particular project.) Prior to that, Derrickson directed the original pilot for TNT’s Snowpiercer series, but refused to return for reshoots after that series lost its showrunner, noting that the “the feature-length pilot I made from that script may be my best work. The new showrunner has a radically different vision for the show.”
The new project doesn’t have a release date or cast announced, and it’s not clear what story this could take, or if Connelly (whom Derrickson worked with on Snowpiercer) will reprise her role. Jim Henson’s daughter will produce the film with the Jim Henson Company along with Derrickson and his creative partner, C. Robert Cargill.
The sequel is just one of the latest projects from the 1980s to get a sequel that brings its respective franchise before modern audiences. Another Jim Henson project, The Dark Crystal, recently got its own sequel in the form of a Netflix series last year, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
