Lost In Space was the first television space fantasy of the 60s, and the second prime-time success story after Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea. It was also the success-story for cult producer Irwin Allen, cinema’s future ‘Master Of Disaster’, who went on to make such landmark movies as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. But fans of the TV series might be shocked because the $100-million-plus movie version doesn’t have the out-of-this-world kitsch humour that defined the original TV show.

Stephen Hopkins, who earlier directed The Ghost And The Darkness, has directed this New Line Cinema’s biggest-ever production. He says that he was initially attracted to the off-the-wall aspects of the original. “I loved the show because it wasn’t restricted to galaxies exploding, it was also about who was the best go-go dancer in the universe! I fell on the floor laughing when I watched video-tapes of the old series, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed,” says Hopkins, “People don’t want to sit around watching two hours of fun. So we had to change the focus and direction with the movie. It had to have plot-tension, danger and importance. Otherwise, who would care about the stranded Space Family Robinson?”

Script-writer Akiva Goldsman (whose other credits include The Client and A Time To Kill) voices the same thoughts, “Lost In Space was my favourite TV show. But my recollection of the show was different to the actual show itself. What I held in my heart was an action/adventure about people surviving in adverse circumstances. We’ve tried to be true to the spirit of the show in those places where it seems appropriate. But the scale, scope and focus has changed drastically. In the original show, the Jupiter II spaceship seemed to be the size of a two-bedroom Condo. Now it’s as big as the Coliseum!”

Lost In Space began its hefty 21-week production schedule on March 4, 1997, and was shot entirely at London’s Shepperton Studios on eight sound stages, where the anticipated franchise project utilised enormous sets depicting alien landscapes and the impressive Jupiter II interiors. It stars Gary Oldman as the villainous Dr. Zachary Smith, with William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Heather (Boogie Nights) Graham, Lacey Chabert (Party Of Five) and Jack Johnson playing the Space Family Robinson, with Friends star Matt Le Blanc taking on the role as their devil-may-care pilot, Major Don West.

Populated with other-worldly creatures and hi-tech robots created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Lost In Space features over 700 computer-generated visual effects (an industry record) as it tells the story of the first family unit selected to test out the experimental warp-drive ‘Hypergate’ route into the far reaches of the galaxy. The goal is to research the colonisation possibilities of the stars. But the explorers are marooned alongwith stowaway Smith, when the latter’s sinister sabotage lands them in a perilous corner of space. There, the cosmic castaways must deal with an insidious latent threat from alien moon-spiders they encountered earlier, abroad the bandit Proteus spaceship, as well as confront erratic time portals, which bring the resilient family face-to-face with their past and future selves.

Oldman was one of the first actors to read Goldsman’s script and thought it would be enormous fun to act in the film. “It’s as simple as that,” notes the star, who headlined two of last summer’s biggest hits, The Fifth Element and Air Force One. “Akiva’s screenplay said a lot of nice things about values, family, father/son relationships, caring and love. It wasn’t just a wham-bang shoot-’em up story.”

“Lost In Space has heart and a great story alongwith marvellous special effects,” he continues, “In all honesty, I’m tired of playing a villain, but Stephen’s narration intrigued me enough to consider the Smith role. Plus they decided to pay me a lot of money...!

Three-time Oscar-nominated production designer Norman Garwood put the concept of the film physically on screen. While deciding on the look of the film, director Hopkins, Garwood and his team didn’t go for any particular design paths. They simply took lots of influences — art deco, thirties, kitsch, etc. and moulded them together. Suddenly, the prop makers and set-builders got the mood, and they decided on the ‘the Brazil look’.

Nevertheless, Garwood did underestimate the complexity and enormity of Lost In Space on the practical level. “Liaising with all the other departments over a cohesive design has been extremely daunting,” he admits. “I’ve never known a film where departments have crossed over to such a large extent.”

Garwood cites two examples. “The computer graphic spiders involved us all. Everyone chopped and changed the design until we were all happy,” he says, “Being chased by hundreds of alien spiders must be the worst nightmare for a lot of people.” And indeed, he notes, “The scariness of the spiders in such a family-orientated movie did worry us, which is why we went from having the usual eight legs to being more a three-legged tripod shape.”

Likewise, the design of the two robots also became a committee decision. Robot 1 ended up being an eight-foot-tall powerful hulk that looked like a metallic American footballer. “It’s this Robot that the Robinsons take into space to help them build the ‘Hypergate’. It’s blown apart in a last stand with the spiders, and Will Robinson builds Robot 2 from the debris in the image of the much-loved robot from the TV series. We’re expecting a huge audience cheer when they first see the robot’s goldfish bubble-head with lights whizzing around inside,” says Garwood.

It’s New Line Cinema’s gamble that the combination of such nostalgic moments with spectacular new-space fantasy will prove a blockbuster hit, ripe with sequel possibilities. “We haven’t planned anything yet,” says script-writer Goldsman, “Sure, we fantasise a lot. You do when you make something like this and see how great it’s working out. However, the movie is set up as a quest. The Robinson family have to go out into the far reaches of the galaxy and find a way to save our planet. They haven’t got to that place, so there are many questions left unanswered. The audience will want those answers.”