Netflix might as well be known as the Island of Lost TV Shows. The latest show to be resurrected from the dead is 1965’s Lost In Space, which comes to Netflix after a “competitive situation, with multiple bidders”.
Lost In Space originally aired in 1965 and ran for three seasons on CBS, and follows the Robinson family as they embark on a mission to Alpha Centauri. After a saboteur boards Jupiter 2, the ship is unexpectedly, well, lost in space. 1960s space adventures follow.
There have been multiple attempts to bring the story back. In 1998, New Line Cinemas released a film directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc, and Gary Oldman. The film was a box office and critical failure, which killed a planned film sequel. Despite that, Kevin Burns of Synthesis Entertainment had worked to try and bring the show back as a television show in the late 1990s. A pilot directed by John Woo for a revised show was created in 2003 by Doug Petrie for the WB, but it was never picked up for a series. (You can find the pilot uploaded to the internet in various places)
The new show will reportedly be directed by Neil Marshall, who’s worked on television shows such as Hannibal, Constantine and Game of Thrones.
Space opera is starting to get popular once again, with shows like Killjoys, Dark Matter and the Expanse coming from the SyFy channel this year: it makes sense that Netflix would work to create their own show for that market. It’ll be interesting to see just how the show is updated for the modern day: will they go the Battlestar Galactica route, and make it a dark and serious story? Or will they keep it light and campy?