Netflix Will Get LOST IN SPACE
Last week, news hit the internet that Netflix will be the home of the new Lost In Space, a reboot of the classic Irwin Allen series that ran on CBS starting in 1965.
The new version is a passion project for Kevin Burns at Synthesis Entertainment, which will produce the new series as an “epic but grounded science fiction saga” about a family facing the challenges of an alien universe after being lost. Dracula Untold screenwriters Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless will executive produce along with Burns and Legendary TV/Applebox execs Neil Marshall and Marc Helwig. Marshall is expected to direct the pilot.
Programmed at the same time as Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek (which had an unaired pilot in 1964 followed by the series launch in 1966), which was on NBC, Lost In Space followed the Robinson family and the crew of the Jupiter 2, fated to explore the unknown reaches of the galaxy after Dr. Zachary Smith sabotages the ship. Instead of making the trip to Alpha Centauri, the ship veers off course and wanders through space while searching for a way to get home.
Initially, the show was a fairly straight drama, with the first season in black and white and featuring more dramatic scripts. But the second season went to color, also skewing more towards comedy after the success of Batman in 1966.
Burns has been trying to revive the show since at least 1999, when a revival telefilm came to a halt after the death of the original Dr. Smith, Jonathan Harris. The WB played with the notion of a reboot in 2003-2004, but it never got past a pilot script written by Doug Petrie.
The show was remade as a movie in 1998, with William Hurt and Gary Oldman leading the cast, but it under-performed and the planned franchise died on the drawing boards.
The show celebrated its 50th anniversary in September 2015 with the release of the entire original series on home video.
