From SFCrowsNest:
Lost in Space is Go
LOS set to return to TV in new re-make.
Time Warner’s TV company, WB Network, has just won the rights to make the new series of 60s television series Lost in Space.
The original riff on ‘Space Family Robinson’ was last seen as a flashy movie with the lovely Joey from Friends in the pilot seat (decent SFX hampered by a middling script). The will-they won’t-they get home theme – also mirrored by Star Trek Voyager – proved just too difficult to compress into the closed confines of a movie.
The new series will be set, very optimistically, in 2097 … let’s face it, if we’ve got a manned base on the moon by then we’ll be well ahead of the curve (and on current form, said base is more likely to by Chinese than NASA-manned).
WB want to stick to the basics of the original series with Robby the Robot and all the family favourites being trotted out, so a Galactica-style ‘re-imagining’ doesn’t seem to be on the cards. Apparently this was pretty much a pre-condition of Irwin Allen’s estate, the old series creator, which still owns most the rights to Lost in Space.
In one twist though, the Dr Smith part does look like it’s going to be dropped totally. Gary Oldman will be disappointed. Danger, Will Robinson! That’s a big mistake, old Smithy blinking made the original series.
Doug ‘Buffy’ Petrie’s has got the writer’s chair, while some big names are being wheeled out for the pilot, including legend-in-his-own-lunchtime John Woo as Exec. Producer.
So will we see the normally cumbersome Robby twirling across the screen via the magic of wire-work with two lasers flashing? God, let’s hope not!
10 Oct 2003 by JessicaMartin
Well, Dare You?
A new Dan Dare exhibition is running in the UK’s Manchester.
The futuristic sci-fi cartoon hero of the 1950s, Dan Dare and his crew, has landed at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry. This is something of a return to base for the fictional Dan Dare who – in his Eagle comic story line – was born in Manchester in the then far-far-future of 1967.
The ‘Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future’ exhibition is now running through to the 18th January 2004, alongside an exhibition called ‘Destination Mars’ on – rather unsurprisingly – the red planet.
David Britton from the Eagle Society enthused: “This will be the largest exhibition of Dan Dare yet – it will display a range of artwork, memorabilia and merchandise never displayed before and a wide range of artefacts and items used in a mock-up of the original artists studio in Epsom”.
Conceived by Southport-based clergyman Marcus Morris and created by Frank Hampson, Eagle magazine and the cartoon strip adventures of Dan Dare became a popular success in the 1950s. It was the Pokemon of its day, with proto-merchandising covering everything from toy guns to lunchboxes.
At a time when the first developments in space travel were making the headlines, Dan Dare’s colourful strip captured the imaginations of kids stuck in the grey old days of British rationing and post-war reconstruction.
The story of the British Space Programme through 1955 -1971 (yes, we had one) provides a link between the science fiction of Dan Dare and the museum’s other exhibition on the exploration of Mars. The second show ponders familiar questions like ‘could Mars shelter some form of life?’
Bob Scott, Acting Director told us: “This is a thrilling double bill that will explore all possibilities in space exploration from the very real to those that need a more creative imagination. It is an exhibition for all ages to enjoy and I can imagine grandparents sharing Dan Dare stories with their grandchildren. The exhibition is the highlight of an air and space season at the Museum”.
Admission for adults is £3.50, concessions are £2.50, while under-5s go free (children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult).
17 Oct 2003 by JessicaMartin
And I’m still rushing on sugar… 🙂