A staple of Saturday morning television for a generation, the Sid and Marty Kroft produced “Land of the Lost” will make the jump to the big-screen this week when the big-budget feature version of the movie opens Friday. Starring in the big-screen version is actor Will Farrell, best known for his comedic roles in the hit movies, “Elf” and “Talladega Nights.”
Farrell says the new version of the film pays homage to the original series, but updates the story and the effects for a new generation.
“We knew the Sleestaks would be slow, we would maintain that, but for the most part the decision was made early on to make the effects part be updated and a cool thing as opposed to a kitschy thing, and get to build all the sets and everything,” Farrell told SciFi Wire. “That was really a neat aspect that they decided to add in, but, yeah, there was a decision early on to make that be the great part and then have the comedy bounce off of that.”
Farrell said one of the hard parts of filming the movie was working off the green-screen and remembering to deliver his jokes.
“It was hard, at times, because you’re obviously running from point A to point B,” Ferrell said. “It’s something that I wasn’t used to, and I find in watching the movie you kind of see moments after the fact where we could have made a joke maybe here. So that was a little difficult. But for the most part, the script was pretty well set going into that.”
Farrell also addressed the issue of having the entire cast be grown-ups, instead of how they were originally played on the television series.
“For whatever reason, we just thought it would give us a better platform for the comedy,” he said. “Instead of having my character saddled with these two kids, it just seemed like it was more opportunity to have Will, the character that Danny [McBride] brought to life, and to have a little bit of a potential of a love interest [with Holly, played by Anna Friel], and that sort of thing. We thought we’d mix it up.”
Fans will be able to decide for themselves if these changes are good or bad when “Land of the Lost” opens Friday.
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