Lost in Space
![Updated by an Infoplease Editor on June 26, 2020](/themes/ip/images/info-circle.png)
Director: | Stephen Hopkins |
Writer: | Akiva Goldsman |
Director of Photography: | Peter Levy |
Editor: | Ray Lovejoy |
Music: | Bruce Broughton |
Production Designer: | Norman Garwood |
Producers: | Carla Fry, Akiva Goldsman, Stephen Hopkins and Mark W. Koch |
New Line Cinema; PG-13; 121 minutes | |
Release: | 4/98 |
Cast: | William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Lacey Chabert, Heather Graham, Gary Oldman, Jack Johnson and Matt LeBlanc |
New Line laid out a cool $70 million (a big wad of cash for the young studio) to remake the wacky 1960s TV series and has already signed the stars for two sequels. Sure, it's been revamped with less camp and slicker special effects (no Styrofoam boulders here), but the big-screen Lost in Space doesn't sport enough sci-fi wizardry and epic space heroism to make it the Star Wars or the Star Trek of the new millennium. With Earth on the brink of ecological disaster, the Robinsons head for the greener pastures of Alpha Prime. But villainous Dr. Smith (Oldman) sabotages the mission, sending the family spacecraft into the middle of intergalactic nowhere. An army of giant arachnids, trippy planets, time warps and two (count 'em!) pet Robots, provide Professor Robinson (Hurt) and his clan with plenty of opportunity to show off all their wiz-bang 21st century technological doo-dads. This makes for good sci-fi fun, though some of the action gets tripped up by a nagging, oozing creature called melodrama. By deciding to skip the camp and beeline it straight for sci-fi drama, this Lost in Space ends up just this side of cheesy.