"The Storyteller" Gets Restored Digital Release!

Shout! Studios recently digitally restored and remastered the classic Henson fantasy series The Storyteller, and the complete collection goes on sale next month.

The Storyteller features acclaimed actors as well as original creatures and characters from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. John Hurt played the title role, aided by his cynical dog (performed by Brian Henson). The episodes include appearances by Miranda Richardson, Sean Bean, Brenda Blethyn, Gabrielle Anwar, Jennifer Saunders, Jane Horrocks, and Jonathan Pryce.

Academy Award-winner Anthony Minghella wrote the episodes, which went on to win both Emmy and BAFTA awards. 

The second iteration of The Storyteller, Greek Myths, focused on ancient Greek tales of gods, heroes, and legends. Stories include Orpheus and Eurydice, Daedalus and Icarus, Perseus and the Gorgon, and Theseus and the Minotaur. The Storyteller: Greek Myths starred Michael Gambon in the title role.

The complete collection will be released by Shout! Studios digitally August 6 on Apple TV, Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, the Microsoft Store, and other digital platforms.

The Storyteller Augment Reality Pop-Up Book!

Canadian production company Felix & Paul Studios has made an augment reality pop-up book based Jim Henson's The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens.

Enter a realm of enchantment with Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens, an augmented reality pop-up book that draws from advancements in AR to transport you to the heart of a timeless tale narrated by award-winning author Neil Gaiman.

The magic of the fairy tale classic is reimagined through cutting-edge technology, creating a spellbinding experience that transcends traditional storytelling. Captivating visuals and interactive elements merge to bring the story to life.

 

You can watch a trailer showing how the story comes to life below:

CNET has more on this including this paragraph on when you can experience it for yourself.

The Magic Leap-based Storyteller experience was created five years ago and was intended to debut back in 2020. It was delayed because of the pandemic and because Magic Leap changed its path, shifting from creative-focused experiments to a business-targeted relaunch.

 The Storyteller experience emerged from the ashes to launch at the Venice Film Festival, but Felix & Paul Studios' co-founder, Paul Raphael, now sees the experience as being a stepping stone to making an actual book product for headsets sometime soon, possibly even for mixed-reality devices like Apple's Vision Pro or the Meta Quest 3.

Thanks to Lorna Mitchell for the info. 

Coming Soon: The Storyteller: Shapeshifters!

BOOM! Studios and Archaia announced a new 4 part mini-series based on The Storyteller - The Storyteller: Shapeshifters.

Each issue will feature a new creative team, with the first issue by writer Andre R. Frattino (Simon Says: Nazi Hunter), artist Nori Retherford, colorist Kieran Quigley and letterer Jim Campbell, spinning a fresh new tale about the ancient Celtic myth of the swan Children of Lir.

Fans of this enchanting series can look forward to stories about shapeshifters of lore by acclaimed creative teams such as award-winning author Darcie Little Badger (Elatsoe) with artist Alexandra Fastovets (Genu) and colorist James Fenner (The Sacrifice of Darkness), illustrator and cartoonist Em Niwa, and comics writer Deron Bennett (Quixote) with artist Bruka Jones (Perdita Aside).

In the first issue, Dain, a nefarious, power-hungry magic user and Lir’s brother-in-law, plots to steal the throne from Lir and his family by turning Lir’s children into swans and ascending the throne himself. While Fionna, the eldest child, attempts to find a way to break their curse, the swan-children are forced to wander near and far for nearly a thousand years. They endure much hardship and sorrow but face the curse together . . . finding solace and strength in one another.

The Storyteller: Shapeshifters #1 will feature main cover art by illustrator Mike del Mundo (above) and variant cover art by artist Mateus Manhanini (below).

Print copies of The Storyteller: Shapeshifter #1 will be available for sale in March 2022 at local comic book shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one) or at the BOOM! Studios webstore. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Kindle.

SNEAK PEEK: Preview of Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Tricksters #2!

Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Tricksters #2 hit comic stores this week. 

The issue written by Jonathan Rivera A teen Yoruba village girl summons the great god of mischief, Eshu, to coerce her crush, a dashing hunter, to break up with his sweetheart and marry her instead.

Eshu agrees to help her, revelling at the chance to wreak havoc with them all…only to find that the village girl had a mischievous plot all of her own.

Check out the first few pages below:

Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Tricksters #2 is available at comic stores now (use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one) or at the BOOM! Studios webstore.

Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.

First Look The Storyteller: Tricksters #1!

Check out an early look at the first issue of The Storyteller: Tricksters written by Jonathan Rivera, with art by Jade Zhang, and lettering by Jim Campbell.

The main cover is by Peach Momoko (above), with a variant by Dani Pendergast (bellow).

Discover the fascinating tale of Anansi, the spider-god, and his quest to free all Stories from his father, the sky god Nyame. But when Anansi becomes the Keeper of Stories, what will he decide to do with all of his new, potentially world-changing knowledge?

Check the first few pages below:

Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Tricksters arrives in comic shops March 17, 2021
(use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one) or at the BOOM! Studios webstore.

Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.

The Jim Henson Company Announces Immersive Storyteller: The Seven Ravens!

The Jim Henson Company announced a new immersive augmented reality experience in development based on The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens.

The full press release is below:

The Jim Henson Company, renowned leader in family entertainment, and Felix & Paul Studios, leaders in immersive storytelling, today announced a new project in development: The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens, a groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) experience. The new chapter of Jim Henson’s classic The Storyteller will be an innovative and ground-breaking addition to the acclaimed television series, in the form of an augmented reality (AR), trackable storybook. Award-winning author Neil Gaiman (Anansi Boys, The Graveyard Book) will voice the role of the narrator. The experience will be demoed in the Siggraph Talks track at the Siggraph virtual conference starting August 17, 2020, with a live Q&A the week of August 24, 2020 to discuss the project’s tracking module.

The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens is an extension of The Jim Henson Company’s popular franchise, that re-envisions folk stories, legends, and fables from around the world. In The Seven Ravens, a young girl sets out on an adventure to save her seven brothers from a curse that turned them into ravens. The AR book experience will allow people to interact with, explore, and re-explore the detailed and robust world of The Storyteller through the lens of The Seven Ravens tale.
Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens is produced by The Jim Henson Company and Felix & Paul Studios with support from the Canadian Media Fund, Magic Leap Independent Creators Program, Epic MegaGrants and SODEC Quebec. Stéphane Rituit executive produced as well as Lisa Henson and Blanca Lista of The Jim Henson Company.

“Partnering with Felix & Paul Studios on this innovative project will bring our fans even closer to The Storyteller, immersing them into the classic tale of The Seven Ravens like never before,” said Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company. “‘Through the magic of augmented reality, readers will be both amazed and surprised by how the story comes to life visually and in a truly interactive format. It is also exciting to have Neil Gaiman, the storyteller of our time, lend his voice to this project.” 

“The Seven Ravens is the next step in immersive storytelling, truly bringing a storybook to life,” said Paul Raphael, co-founder and creative director of Felix & Paul Studios. “We are lucky to be partnering with The Jim Henson Company and Neil Gaiman on this project and can’t wait to show a sneak preview at this year’s Virtual Siggraph conference.”

No other information including the release date or platform for The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens has been announced yet. 

Neil Gaiman Re-imagining The Storyteller!

Deadline is reporting that Neil Gaiman is working with Fremantle and The Jim Henson Company to develop a re-imagined version of The Storyteller.

In the new incarnation, written and executive produced by Gaiman, The Storyteller will create a mystical world combining various fairy tales and folklore. It will be updated to work “for the binging kind” of viewer of today, Gaiman said.

“Part of what fascinates me about The Storyteller is the stuff that we don’t know.,” he said. “Who was the Storyteller, why was he telling these stories, was he a goblin, what kind of creature? What I’d love to do is an inside story that’s as long as the outside story. We’re going to find out a lot about who the storyteller is, we’re going to find out things we don’t even know that we don’t know. We’re going to begin in a Northern kingdom where stories are forbidden and where the act of telling a story is liable and can get you imprisoned or executed. If you put a storyteller into that situation, things would need to start getting interactive.”

No network or time frame for the debut of series has been announced, but I hope Brian Henson is back as the dog!

The Storyteller Soundtrack Coming Very Soon!

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jim Henson's The Storyteller Varèse Sarabande announced it will release a limited-edition box set of music from the series. 

The box set will be limited to 1500 copies, contain music from both Jim Henson's The Storyteller and Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Greek Myths, and include a 32-page booklet of exclusive interviews with the producers of the series and Academy Award winning composer Rachel Portman, as well as a collection of behind-the-scenes photographs.

From Soundtrack.net:

The series was the brainchild of Jim Henson's eldest daughter, Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company. Lisa, who majored in folklore and mythology at Harvard, suggested they create an anthology series based on these stories.

Composer Rachel Portman had been writing music professionally for only a few years when brought on by director Steve Barron to work on the pilot. "Steve and I talked about each film having a special sound and a special voice, and some special instrument that would be part of it. I chose very carefully a different coloration for each story, what the main instrument was going to be—because I wasn't able to have very many instruments, and I wanted it to be orchestral," Portman described.

Brian Henson, who was also the series head puppeteer and is currently chairman of The Jim Henson Company) had nothing but praise for the music. "Rachel Portman gives it a timelessness. She makes the show important," he said. "She makes the stories important. There's a gravitas that comes with her music, but then also the light, lyrical melody. I think it's just beautiful scoring of fantasy."

"I felt I had real freedom to go as dark as I wanted, musically," explained Portman. "I didn't shy away from being really sad, or really dark, or really happy. I think that really matched the way the whole series was done, and the scripts. It always kind of ends in minor. I don't know why. They all come back to a sad chord at the end."

The track list:

Disc I: 

1. Main Title (Extended Version) (0:41)
2. Hans My Hedgehog (Suite A) (4:19)
3. Hans My Hedgehog (Suite B) (6:22)
4. A Story Short (Suite A) (6:50)
5. A Story Short (Suite B) (5:19)
6. Fearnot (Suite A) (5:27)
7. Fearnot (Suite B) (6:37)
8. The Luck Child (Suite A) (6:17)
9. The Luck Child (Suite B) (5:09)
10. The Heartless Giant (Suite A) (6:50)
11. The Heartless Giant (Suite B) (6:53)
12. End Title (0:34)

 Disc II:

1. Main Title with Narration (featuring John Hurt) (0:41)
2. The Soldier and Death (Suite A) (5:04)
3. The Soldier and Death (Suite B) (7:59)
4. The True Bride (Suite A) (5:41)
5. The True Bride (Suite B) (6:18)
6. The Three Ravens (Suite A) (7:34)
7. The Three Ravens (Suite B) (7:59)
8. Sapsorrow (Suite A) (5:18)
9. Sapsorrow (Suite B) (6:03)
10. Main Title (Short Version) (0:37)
11. Unused Bumper A (0:12)
12. Unused Bumper B (0:10)

 Disc III:

1. The Storyteller: Greek Myths Main Titles (UK Version) (0:39)
2. Theseus & The Minotaur (Suite A) (7:23)
3. Theseus & The Minotaur (Suite B) (9:13)
4. Perseus & The Gorgon (Suite A) (7:00)
5. Perseus & The Gorgon (Suite B) (7:21)
6. Daedalus & Icarus (Suite A) (6:42)
7. Daedalus & Icarus (Suite B) (7:18)
8. Orpheus & Eurydice (Suite A) (8:47)
9. Orpheus & Eurydice (Suite B) (6:57)
10. Main Titles (US Version) (0:33)

 Disc III Bonus Tracks:

1. Theseus (Suite) (1:34)
2. Orpheus (Suite) (1:29)

Jim Henson's The Storyteller can be currently viewed via the STARZ app and Fathom Events Labyrinth screenings (April 29, May 1&2) will include a special theatrical The Storyteller excerpt.

The 3-CD set is now available for pre-order and will be released on April 27, 2018.

RIP John Hurt, The Storyteller!

John Hurt, who many Muppet fans fondly as the The Storyteller, has died.

In addition to portraying the titular Storyteller the 1988 Henson series, Hurt appeared in many film and television roles in his 6 decade career including Midnight Express,
Nineteen Eighty-Four, V for Vendetta,  Mr Ollivander, the wand-maker, in the Harry Potter films, both Hellboy films, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and the War Doctor in Doctor Who.

He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Midnight Express. 

He won a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, and an Academy Award for Best Actor for The Elephant Man.

He memorably portrayed Kane in 1979's Alien, a role which he reprised and parodied in Spaceballs.

Hurt also had a successful voice acting career, voicing characters in Watership Down , the animated The Lord of the Rings, and the Horned King in Disney's The Black Cauldron.

For us Muppet fans though, he will always be The Storyteller. 
While he appeared in each episode of the series, the third episode, "A Story Short", was the only one to focus on the Storyteller himself. 

Fan favorite, "The Soldier and Death" feels particularly poignant now as well.

Below Jim Henson shows how they turned Hurt into The Storyteller as part of The Jim Henson Hour: Secrets of The Muppets. (Jump to the 36:45 mark)

The Jim Henson Company put together a short behind the scenes look at the sereis:

In 2015, he was knighted for his services to drama.

He died just 6 days after his 77th birthday. No cause of death was reported.

His talents will missed.

Jim Henson's Storyteller: Dragons Hardcover Also Now Available!

The hardcover version of Jim Henson's Storyteller: Dragons is also now available.

 

This is a collection of Achaia's Jim Henson's Storyteller: Dragons comics that were released earlier this year.

The critically acclaimed Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Dragons includes four tales of dragons and the men and women courageous enough to face them, inspired by folklore from around the world, all told in the spirit of Jim Henson’s beloved television series. 

Featuring an astounding collection of styles and stories by some of today’s most original voices, including Daniel Bayliss (Translucid), Nathan Pride (Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard), Hannah Christenson (Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard) and Jorge Corona (Feathers), this stunning hardcover edition also includes an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the process and care taken in adapting each of these timeless legends.

You can find it at your local comic shop, however even though it was just released yesterday, it looks like Amazon is already temporarily sold out! 

SciFiNow Profiles The Storyteller!

On newsstands now is the latest issue of the UK magazine SciFiNow. 

Inside you'll find an exclusive interview with Dunken Kenworthy about making The Storyteller.

If you can't find it at your local bookseller, the issue is also available on their website. 

Happy Birthday, John Hurt!

Celebrate the great John Hurt's birthday by revisiting his role as the title characters from Jim Henson's The Storyteller!

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Dragons!

The next wave of Boom! and Archaia Storyteller anthology series - Dragons, hits comic store shelves today!

There will be two covers:

 Cover by Cory Godbey

Cover by Daniel Bayliss

The first issue, “Son of the Serpent”, is written by Fabian Rangel Jr. and illustrated by Daniel Baylis.  Check out some same pages curiosity of Nerdist:

As you can see the story is inspired by Native American folk tales the Horned Snake and the Thunderbird.

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Dragons #1 is on shelves now!