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Isn't it screamingly obvious that LAND OF THE GIANTS deserves a remake? Look at all the properties that have been rebooted or had a reunion film in the past few decades. It seems like everything.
But LAND OF THE GIANTS is still waiting. And it's a great concept for just-plain-fun that wouldn't be that hard to pull off with today's technology.
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Land Of The Giants, like every Irwin Allen TV series, began promisingly, and degenerated into the ridiculous. What I would really like to see is a new version of The Incredible Shrinking Man.
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Posted: |
Aug 16, 2016 - 12:54 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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I very much agree with the person that said, "Irwin Allen is the worst thing that ever happened to Science Fiction."
That's hyperbole if I ever saw it! To qualify for that, Allen would have to be far more influential than he actually was. As it is, he was just a gleeful fellow (young at heart) who made some fun, but campy sci fi shows, and a couple of well-meaning disaster movies in the 70s. Very harmless altogether. I mean, I like both TOWERING INFERNO and especially THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, but you have to take them for what they are -- overblown, "fun" popcorn movies.
LAND OF GIANTS ran on Super Channel (or was it Sky Channel) back in the mid 80s, along with THE TIME TUNNEL, and I remember tuning in for a few episodes of each back then. Even as a kid, I found them campy and ridiculous, so I didn't stick around for full seasons! LOST IN SPACE was not shown (not that I can remember, anyway), and I only saw some episodes of that as an adult. That was not an impressive affair either, despite a promising premise and some decent episodes early on in the first season. Still, it remains one of the three defining sci fi shows that came out at the time (along with STAR TREK and DR. WHO in Britain).
Incidentally, LAND OF THE GIANTS was the very last thing Williams did as a "TV craftsman" back in the 60s. It premiered in 1968, and by then Williams had pretty much put his TV days behind him. I'm sure he did the theme and pilot episode only as a favour to his old pal Irwin Allen.
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Posted: |
Aug 16, 2016 - 4:05 PM
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By: |
ScottyM
(Member)
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Land of the Giants is my least favorite of the Irwin Allen SF quartet. It ran into a rut really quickly, becoming a "capture, climbing and rescue" show - with the emphasis on the climbing. The second season, things got crazier with the introduction of "Irwin Allen Aliens and Time Travel." However, while it made the series less credible, it made it more fun. Still, as dull as it got, it had the best overall cast. Meaning that just about the entire cast was made up of really good actors. Unlike, say Voyage, which had one amazing actor and two or three good actors actors among the lesser lights. Or Lost in Space, which had maybe two or three solid performers. Or even Time Tunnel, which had the dullest leads, but the most interesting premise.
All of them deserve a good remake.
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Posted: |
Aug 18, 2016 - 1:07 PM
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By: |
ScottyM
(Member)
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Well, LOST IN SPACE was already remade as a feature film, and from what I've heard they're trying it again.
Well, I did say good remake. Even though I enjoyed the 1998 movie tremendously, most people did not. The coming Netflix series (2017) will be the third try at reaching an audience successfully (after the little seen failed pilot "The Robinsons: Lost in Space"). With more direct involvement by the rights holder, perhaps this will do better.
The Time Tunnel remake pilot years ago felt too much like Stargate SG-1 and, for whatever reason, didn't go to series. However, series like Voyager and Quantum Leap took certain aspects of the TT and updated them.
Voyage had a "sort of" remake with SeaQuest DSV/2032, a series I adored, but again, most people didn't like it and it's not a true, official remake.
Land of the Giants hasn't been touched at all.
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I barely saw SEAQUEST DSV because it was up against LOIS & CLARK. Apparently Roy Scheider was unhappy the second season, or as he called it, time-warp robot crap:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1994-09-13/news/9409130211_1_scheider-junk-seaquest
That reminds me of what happened to MAN FROM ATLANTIS in its first and only season, another show with a cool submarine that had great potential. They almost immediately jumped in the wild-fantasy direction, and on top of that they were up against HAPPY DAYS, so while I was glued to MFA, almost nobody else in my school was.
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Posted: |
Aug 18, 2016 - 9:56 PM
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By: |
RoryR
(Member)
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I very much agree with the person that said, "Irwin Allen is the worst thing that ever happened to Science Fiction."
That's hyperbole if I ever saw it! To qualify for that, Allen would have to be far more influential than he actually was. As it is, he was just a gleeful fellow (young at heart) who made some fun, but campy sci fi shows, and a couple of well-meaning disaster movies in the 70s. Very harmless altogether. I mean, I like both TOWERING INFERNO and especially THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, but you have to take them for what they are -- overblown, "fun" popcorn movies.
Oh, god... I'm so sick of that term "popcorn movie." I find little "fun" about a movie -- in any genre -- where you have to turn your brain off in order to enjoy it, and find it quite depressing the older I get that the majority of what we're offered in fictional entertainment is exactly that -- brain dead crap, shallow time killers and nothing more.
How about some fucking food for thought again in our mass entertainment? Because otherwise, more and more we're just becoming the Planet of the Morons.
And that statement about Allen isn't hyperbole -- because there's too much truth in it. Ah, but then again, truth takes brains to be perceived.
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Posted: |
Aug 25, 2016 - 2:15 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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Oh, god... I'm so sick of that term "popcorn movie." I find little "fun" about a movie -- in any genre -- where you have to turn your brain off in order to enjoy it, and find it quite depressing the older I get that the majority of what we're offered in fictional entertainment is exactly that -- brain dead crap, shallow time killers and nothing more.
How about some fucking food for thought again in our mass entertainment? Because otherwise, more and more we're just becoming the Planet of the Morons.
And that statement about Allen isn't hyperbole -- because there's too much truth in it. Ah, but then again, truth takes brains to be perceived.
Of course it's hyperbole. Allen is a parenthesis in TV history, so a quote like that attributes too much power to him. He was a perfectly harmless guy who came and went, and gave us some -- at best -- highly enjoyable moments while it lasted.
As for 'popcorn' movies, I wouldn't be without them. Like any well-balanced diet, one needs a little bit of both. A challenging, cerebral film one moment, and then an easygoing genre film the next. It's what makes a cinephile's life so exciting!
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