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Land of the Lost – Production Information
UNIVERSAL PICTURES Presents
In Association with RELATIVITY MEDIA
A SID & MARTY KROFFT / MOSAIC Production
A BRAD SILBERLING Film
WILL FERRELL
DANNY MCBRIDE
ANNA FRIEL
JORMA TACCONE
Executive Producers
DANIEL LUPI
JULIE WIXSON DARMODY
ADAM MCKAY
BRAD SILBERLING
RYAN KAVANAUGH
Produced by
JIMMY MILLER
SID & MARTY KROFFT
Based on
SID & MARTY KROFFT’S
LAND OF THE LOST
Written by
CHRIS HENCHY & DENNIS MCNICHOLAS
Directed by
BRAD SILBERLING
Production Information
WILL FERRELL (Step Brothers, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) stars as has-been scientist Dr. Rick Marshall, a man with no weapons, few skills and questionable smarts who must survive an alternate universe full of marauding dinosaurs and fantastic creatures from beyond our world. Marshall has been sucked through a space-time vortex to a place of spectacular sights and super-scaled comedy known as the Land of the Lost.
Coming along with him for the adventure are crack-smart research assistant Holly (ANNA FRIEL, television’s Pushing Daisies, Timeline) and a redneck souvenirist (DANNY MCBRIDE, Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express) named Will. Chased by T. rex and stalked by painfully slow reptiles known as Sleestak, Marshall, Will and Holly must rely on their only ally—a primate called Chaka (JORMA TACCONE, television’s Saturday Night Live)—to navigate out of the hybrid dimension. Escape from this routine expedition gone awry and they’re heroes. Get stuck, and they’ll be permanent refugees in the Land of the Lost.
Based on the classic series created by television icons SID & MARTY KROFFT, Land of the Lost is directed by BRAD SILBERLING (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Casper) and produced by JIMMY MILLER (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers) and Sid & Marty Krofft. The comedy adventure is written by CHRIS HENCHY (television’s I’m With Her, upcoming The Last Janitor) & DENNIS MCNICHOLAS (The Ladies Man, upcoming The Last Janitor).
To imagine this mythical world, director Silberling brings an accomplished behind-the-scenes crew to the project, including Oscar®-winning director of photography DION BEEBE (Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago); editor PETER TESCHNER (Borat, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story); production designer BO WELCH (Men in Black series, Beetle Juice); composer MICHAEL GIACCHINO (Star Trek, Up); costume designer MARK BRIDGES (There Will Be Blood, Yes Man); and Oscar®-winning VFX supervisor BILL WESTENHOFER (Elf, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). Creature and makeup effects are created by Spectral Motion’s MIKE ELIZALDE (Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pan’s Labyrinth), while creatures are designed by CRASH MCCREERY (Lady in the Water, Enchanted).
The film’s executive producers are DANIEL LUPI (50 First Dates), JULIE WIXSON DARMODY (Elf), ADAM MCKAY (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby), Silberling and RYAN KAVANAUGH (Fighting).
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Lost Is Found:
Greenlighting the Project
In 1940, producer Sid Krofft’s father snuck his young son into a movie theater to see the Hal Roach classic adventure One Million B.C. His life would never be the same. “This made such a huge impression on me, and ever since then I wanted to do a show with dinosaurs,” recalls Krofft. “That is where we got the idea for Land of the Lost.”
The television series Land of the Lost—the fifth show from creators Sid & Marty Krofft—debuted in 1974. Over three years and 43 episodes, young audiences grabbed their cereal bowls and eagerly followed the adventures of Dr. Rick Marshall and his children, Will and Holly. The park ranger, while on a routine canoeing expedition with his kids, fell over a waterfall and crossed a time portal…arriving in a land unlike anything TV viewers had ever seen before. Dinosaurs, aliens and all things past, present and future collided to keep children glued to their sets every Saturday morning.
Known for creating beloved series such as H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, The Bugaloos, Dr. Shrinker and Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Sid & Marty Krofft attribute the success of their many shows, especially Land of the Lost, to one adage: Keep your concept simple.
Producer Marty Krofft explains: “We had ordinary people caught in this extraordinary land of creatures and three moons. We never lost track of how important the story was, and it was really important to us to give names and personalities to the dinosaurs—the first time dinosaurs were ever on television.”
Land of the Lost began its journey from small to big screen several years ago. Producer Jimmy Miller approached the writing team of Dennis McNicholas and Chris Henchy about translating Sid & Marty Krofft’s classic show into a feature film, with an eye for Will Ferrell to star in the project. Miller, who manages Ferrell and Henchy—as well as the Kroffts—knew that McNicholas and Henchy had the comic sensibility to make the project work as an action-comedy.
For more than a decade during their time together on Saturday Night Live, McNicholas had written for and with Ferrell, and the Krofft brothers were invaluable contributors in elaborating upon the intricate back-story as the team reimagined the world of Land of the Lost.
Remembers McNicholas: “I’d been jockeying for this job for the last 18 years. I had the Land of the Lost lunch box when I was in kindergarten. When Adam McKay, Will and I were at Saturday Night Live, we made Sleestak jokes as frequently as possible. I jumped at the chance to work on this.”
His writing partner has similar fond memories of the show. Says Henchy: “I watched it as a child. My parents constantly told me on Saturday mornings to turn the TV off, so it’s been brewing for years as well.”
Die-hard fans of the property, the writers were adamant about respecting the series, but also updating Land of the Lost so it wasn’t a paint-by-numbers interpretation. They reintroduced Marshall, Will and Holly as three unlikely adventurers who must band together to survive in a surreal world.
“Using our childhood Land of the Lost memories as our guide, we tried to have fun with the full cosmic complexity of the series and not limit ourselves to just dinosaur jokes,” provides McNicholas. Knowing that Ferrell would be the film’s lead allowed them to push the comedy limits.
Not only did the partners believe it would open up the comedy to change the characters from a family to three strangers forced to work together, they knew that the film needed to have all the constructs of an exciting action adventure. Says Henchy: “Our mantra was that if you stripped away the comedy, it would still be a good adventure and vice versa. That was very important to us.”
After initial discussions with his team, Ferrell was certain he wanted to be a part of the project. He explains: “Hands down, Land of the Lost was one of my favorite shows as a kid. When you think back to Saturday morning television in the ’70s, it was mostly Bugs Bunny and crazy cartoons. Then you had this realistic live-action show with a dad and two kids and dinosaurs and all this crazy stuff that was played as real. Of course, the effects looked amazing to my nine-year-old eyes.”
“The big question was,” continues Ferrell, “Did we go the route of the television series and show Sleestak where you can see the zippers up their backs, or do we take Jurassic Park and thrust comedy into it?” Fortunately, a meeting with a longtime colleague would resolve that question.
In spring 2007, old friends Ferrell and filmmaker Brad Silberling sat down for lunch. Ferrell told Silberling he was attached to Land of the Lost and wanted him to be involved. The director, who had several years earlier completed another large-scale adventure with Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, had his own fond memories of Marshall, Will, Holly, Chaka and the Sleestak.
“I’m the age where I watched Land of the Lost on TV in my pajamas every Saturday morning,” says Silberling. “It sounded like a completely brilliant idea to make it into a movie. That you could be ballsy and go for it, taking the things you love and combining them with humor, were just the right ingredients.”
The director felt it was important to respect the original property while writing a new chapter for the world of Land of the Lost. “You have to venture bravely into an undertaking like this. I was a dedicated viewer of the series as a child, and I had my own emotional response, so I feel I am a good ambassador,” Silberling notes. He knew if he were to agree to the film, the cast and crew needed to share “a sense of humor about what the experience of the original show was” and understand that “Saturday morning television had its limitations,” as he recalls Sid & Marty Krofft saying.
Silberling met with Universal executives about helming the film and noted that if he was going to be involved, he wanted to use practical sets for as much of Land of the Lost as possible. The deal was signed, and stages on the Universal Studios lot were immediately reserved. By summer 2007, four-time Oscar®-nominated production designer Bo Welch came aboard and set construction was soon in full swing on six sound stages.
As was Ferrell, Marty Krofft was quite pleased with the choice of director. He commends: “Brad Silberling has a very large heart. He has passion; he’s a pro and a stickler for detail. He was into every little corner of this thing…every nook and cranny. He’s just calm; he’s got a great attitude.”
The filmmaker worked with the screenwriting partners to hone a Wizard of Oz-like model for the story in which audiences would be whisked away with Marshall, Will and Holly to a faraway land. They blended that concept with elements of a Swiss Family Robinson experience in which the characters are forced to make their new home in another world. So what makes that funny? Says Henchy: “You can’t lose with comedy versus jeopardy…when you layer that with adventure.”
Recasting Marshall as a discredited “quantum paleontologist”—an imaginary discipline that blends particle physics with the study of dinosaurs—lent itself to the sci-fi bend of the show. Many of the writers from the original series also had written for Star Trek in the ’60s and went on to become successful sci-fi novelists. Says Ferrell: “Our characters think aloud with the audience as they are stuck in these absurd situations, and that is what makes it so fun. The scale is just tremendous in every way, from the sets to the visual effects. Marshall is a fun character to play because he is the take-charge leader of the group…whether he is capable or not.”
Subtle nods to the series are seen throughout the story. Shares Silberling: “To play and enjoy with key elements of the series, that is what made it interesting to me. To be able to access this world via Will and the other outrageously talented cast, that was reason enough for me to go through the war that it is to create a big production. I wanted to be in that world.”
Chaka, Will and Holly:
Casting the Routine Expedition
Production greenlit, it was time to cast the additional roles that would allow Dr. Rick Marshall to embark upon his epic adventure. To move the comedy adventure along, Silberling believed the script needed to show conflict among our trio of adventurers as they fumbled their way through the foreign land. “We created a group of characters much more impaired than the TV series,” he says. “We have three misfits needing to prove themselves and, in the process, they have to save the Earth.”
Holly would no longer be a little American girl with blonde pigtails, but a British expatriate who has been educated at Cambridge and moved to Los Angeles for work. She has been hired as a research assistant at La Brea Tar Pits, and her decision to seek employment there is more than coincidentally based on her attraction to Dr. Rick Marshall and (what she considers) his brilliant mind.
Explains Ferrell of his character’s relationship with the fellow scientist: “Marshall is misunderstood and considered a joke in the scientific community, since he thinks there is an alternate universe. We see him down and out working at La Brea Tar Pits…until he meets Holly, who believes in him and his work.”
Silberling and Ferrell were determined that a British actress would play Holly Cantrell in the film. In fact, when actor Anna Friel was cast, Silberling insisted that she speak in her distinct Manchester accent. “On Pushing Daisies I had an American accent, and most other projects I have had to speak with a posh English accent,” explains Friel. “This is the first time I have used my own voice since I was 20.”
The performer enjoyed portraying the only person on Earth who still believed enough in Dr. Marshall to focus her graduate work on his theories of quantum paleontology. Friel continues: “She has a huge crush on Marshall and his mind, and he doesn’t realize she is totally in love with him.”
When she was cast, Friel wasn’t familiar with the Land of the Lost television series. Silberling liked the fact she had a fresh take on the character from the first table read. “Anna just commits,” he compliments. “You believe her belief in Marshall, and she goes for it. She has a great spirit.”