Labyrinth

The Chameleon of Rock was also a talented film actor.

Scott Derrickson will direct the project.

‘City of Lies’ was due in theaters in one month. Not anymore.

Everyone has that a special movie (or two) from their childhood that they feel protective of — a film so formative and beloved that even the slightest hint of “remake” elicits a drastic eyebrow-raise. For me, it’s Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, a beautiful and wildly imaginative film filled with great music, performances and wonderful Henson puppetry that also happened to introduce me to my first crush: David Bowie. (I was five. It was significant.) And although revisiting that world with a new director could be fun under the right circumstances, I reserve the right to remain skeptical.

Remember that movie about the murders of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur that Johnny Depp is in, for some reason? Depp is playing a detective who tries (and, obviously, fails) to crack both cases, and Forest Whitaker has just joined the cast as Depp’s journalist buddy who is also interested to find out what actually happened to the hip hop icons.

Did you know that Labyrinth wasn’t originally conceived as a musical? Jim Henson only added songs to his fantasy film after he cast rock star David Bowie as Jareth. If you’re gonna have David Bowie playing the part, you might as well get the full Bowie. That’s just one of the an entire web of facts featured in the last episode of You Think You Know Movies!

We can all calm down because the sanctity of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth is not being disturbed as previously thought. Over the weekend, we learned that Sony had struck a deal with Jim Henson Co. for a Labyrinth reboot based on a screenplay by Guardians of the Galaxy co-writer Nicole Perlman. Perlman herself has now taken to social media to allay your fears and ensure you that no one is remaking your beloved Labyrinth and this news was all just a matter of poor timing.

It was less than two weeks ago that David Bowie passed away, presumably returning to the great, wide, weird galaxies of space from which he came — which makes this particular bit of news TOO SOON. Tri-Star and Jim Henson Co. are rebooting Labyrinth, Jim Henson’s classic 1986 fantasy film that introduced an entire generation of oblivious kids to the magic of David Bowie. On the good news side of things, Guardians of the Galaxy co-writer Nicole Perlman has been tapped to write the screenplay. So that’s something? Maybe?