(Year 2000 - 2001)
By John Kenneth Muir
Note: Excerpts of this article first appeared in the May/June 2001 Cinescape "Buzz Box" on page 22. Since then, alas, this movie seems to have become trapped in development heck. This is a shame as Mr. Tenenbaum's script sounds like a very faithful and interesting "re-do" of the series that I believe fans would have enjoyed. Let's hope that with the resurgence of 1970s TV series these days, this project gets resurrected soon...
Adapting old TV shows to the silver screen has become no more than a "routine expedition" for many writers in Hollywood, but scribe Teddy Tenenbaum is riding high over one assignment. He just penned the screenplay for the upcoming feature film re-do of the classic 1970s Saturday morning adventure, Sid and Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost. An admirer and fan of the program from way back, Tenenbaum watched the prehistoric adventure "religiously during his youth, and has packed his screenplay with touches certain to strike the right chord with series fans.
"It's a very warm tribute to the original show," Tenenbaum told this author. "It's important to me, and I know it is very important to Sid and Marty Krofft, that the original fans get as much out of this film as the viewer who comes to it completely unaware of the TV series."
But there will be some changes, Tenenbaum cautions, mostly to modernize the tale and its characters.
"The plot will sound remarkably like the television show, but with some important differences. A fractured family: Holly, Will and their father, Rick Marshall, travel to a Maya archaelogical site in Mexico to bury the ashes of their recently deceased, archaeologist mother. Once there, they experience the greatest earthquake ever known, and tumble through a wormhole into a parallel universe, all of which falls under the multi-verse theory that is popular in physics today. That's the scientific hook we hang all this on, and the script is very much about evolution, the evolution of societies, and the evolution of culture."
A proposed Land of the Lost feature film will also answer a long-standing historical mystery. "What happened to the Mayans?" Tenenbaum wonders. "They disappeared as a civilization almost overnight, and the question is, where did they go? We explain the disappearance of the Mayans, play into the multi-verse theory, and explain how the Marshalls end up in this alternate world."
As interesting as these plot wrinkles, however, will be Tenenbaum's crucial updating of the series' tenets to fit the 21st century, rather than the decade of disco.
"The three human characters have changed quite a bit, because they were originally designed for the young audience, the show was in short segments, and Holly was a little whiny," Tenenbaum notes. "The dialogue was definitely geared towards kids.
The setting gets a face-lift in Tenenbaum's intrepretation too: "The Land of the Lost itself will expand greatly, owing to a higher budget and special effects. It's a parallel universe that, from a specfic point of time, perhaps 10,000 years ago, evolved separately from our own. It's a world in which humans never existed, and we attempt to explain who the Sleestak are, who the Pakuni are, and how they fit into this world."
The show's bizarre supporting cast also undergoes a facelift in his screenplay, according to Tenenbaum. "Chaka is in the movie, but he won't speak English, and he'll talk much less. We end the movie with him headed in the right direction."
And what about Grump, the T-Rex, the enduring nemesis of the Marshall? "We see the return of Grumpy," Tennebaum confides. "But this is a world that has evolved separately from ours, so Grumpy will not just be like the dinosaur he was on the TV series. Grumpy has evolved. Everything has evolved..."
One original series "species" that required no creative evolution, however, was the popular (and frightening) Sleestak. "I love the original Sleestak! They were my favorite characters in the original," Tenenbaum states. "They'll look similar to the way they did in the series, because I think they were horrifying. They were nocturnal and had these giant round eyes. My feeling is that they will sound very similar too, and I wrote into the script that they still make that hissing sound. The big difference is speed - they won't be slow anymore. They are really, really fast, blindingly fast."
With all these old favorites returning, one has to wonder if the forgotten Marshall, Uncle Jack, will get his moment in the spotlight.
"Not a chance," Tenenbaum notes amicably. "I didn't see much of the third season, but when I wanted to go back and watch some of those episodes, the Kroffts wouldn't let me. This is strictly Rick Marshall territory."
Still, Land of the Lost fans better brace themselves, because Tennebaum says his script will crank up the action and excitement level well beyond the "safe" confines of Saturday morning TV.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark is our model as far as pacing is concerned, but the tone will be different. Because we have a family dynamic, Land of the Lost will be a little more serious. But you have to give modern audiences credit for knowing all the movie cliches, so when we can't actually feature elements of the TV series, there are humorous references to them.
That's just part of an exciting formula that Tenenbaum hopes will carry Land of the Lost's popularity into the next generation.
"I see the movie as a kick-ass, modern, science-based and mythology-based, family adventure with great modern creatures and special effects."
Let's hope this is one that gets made. Soon...