Lost in Space, the science fiction cult classic is being remade for TV. After competitive bidding between several networks, Netflix has officially landed the reboot. It looks like the streaming network has high hopes for the remake and already has plans to order the project straight to series.
The series, like the title suggests, will be about will be about a family of explorers from earth who get lost in space and must defy all odds in order to survive. If I’m not mistaken, I believe that’s almost exactly what the original series was about.
The original series aired on CBS in 1965 and ran for 3 season, a total of 83 episodes, before ending due to low viewership and a high production cost. The original Lost in Space was set 30 years in the future, which at that time was 1997. In the series, the Robinson family is sent on a 5 1/2 year journey to colonize deep space for the future of humanity, but they are thrown off course when Dr. Smith sabotages them. Now lost in space, the Robinsons must try to survive.
The upcoming remake won’t be the first time someone has tried to resurrect the Lost in Space crew. A reboot was attempted in the 2003-2004 season but never made it past the pilot. And in 1998, a year later than the original series was set, the Lost in Space film premiered and condensed the premise of the 1960’s show into a couple hours of awkward tension and bad acting.
September of this year marked the 50 year anniversary of the original series, and it would appear that 50 years has been enough time to try to resuscitate Lost in Space even though the last couple times haven’t been stellar successes. Clearly Netflix has high hopes for the new series if they’re already hoping to order the pilot straight to series.
Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless who wrote the 2014 film Dracula Untold will be writing the new Lost in Space. They and Kevin Burns, who owns the rights to the original series, will executive produce the new show. Burns has tried for years to successfully reboot the sci-fi classic, and it looks like his efforts have paid off.
Netflix has not announced a release date yet, but apparently Burns has been developing this project since last year.