s TV series Lost in Space.Essentially, Lost in Space was an intergalactic version of The Swiss Family Robinson.

Three decades and $80 million US later, Lost in Space makes the leap to the big screen on April 3.

William Hurt and Mimi Rogers are Professor John Robinson and his wife Maureen, who volunteer to be the first family to colonize outer space.

They are joined on the historic mission by their eldest daughters Judy (Heather Graham) and Penny (Lacey Chabert), and their son Will (Jack Johnson).

Along for the adventures that await them are ace pilot Don West (Matt LeBlanc) and the scheming arch villain Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman).

These intrepid explorers do battle with space spiders, flee exploding planets and get sucked through time tunnels. And before the six months of shooting at England's Shepperton Studios elapsed, the actors themselves were in for some pretty wild adventures.

"We were often at the mercy of the robots," recalls Rogers. "If they didn't want to work, we all went home."

There are two robots in Lost in Space. The biggest weighed two tonnes and stood over three metres tall. Because young Will Robinson befriends the robot, 10-year-old Johnson had several key scenes with the creature.

"You can't really tell in the movie, but (director) Stephen Hopkins always kept me quite a distance from it," says Johnson.

"They were afraid it might run over me."

Hopkins explains that "each robot was operated by eight people. Some days, the programs wouldn't work, so the robots had minds of their own.

"Those were the days we shut the set down. We didn't want any accidents," says Hopkins.

The space suits provided another unforeseen problem.

"We had to be glued into the cryogenic suits on the days we wore them," says Graham. "They were like very hot, very sticky, very cumbersome wetsuits."

Hurt solved the problem by "finding a stunt guy on set who was just a little bigger than me. I got him to break the suit in each day before I got into it. By the end of the day, though, it got pretty form-fitting."

Hopkins recalls that early in the planning stages for Lost in Space, there was talk of making the film a send-up of the old series.

"We briefly considered making it a kind of Brady Bunch in Space, but we quickly decided to get serious rather than silly," says Hopkins. "What we've tried to make is a sophisticated family adventure film. There's some wacky fun, but some serious moments, too.

"We're not Blade Runner, but we're also not The Jetsons."


More Artists