FIRST LOOK

First Look: Land of the Lost's Evil Sleestaks

by Alex Billington
April 29, 2008
Source: USA Today

Although I wasn't actually a child of the 70's nor did I watch the TV show, I'm beginning to become more and more fascinated with Land of the Lost. I'm probably more excited to see Will Ferrell and Danny R. McBride star together in the big screen remake than I am to see Step Brothers (or any other Will Ferrell movie) this summer. Our friends at USA Today have debuted our very first look at the evil lizard-like creatures called Sleestaks. As much as I'd love to say these come straight out of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, in reality, they're men-in-suit costumes that are meant to look hilarious, and hilarious they are (at least I think)! Don't these guys make you want to laugh?

In Land of the Lost, Park Ranger Rick Marshall (Ferrell) and two others mysteriously end up in a realm ruled by dinosaurs, monkey-men called Pakuni and the murderous Sleestak. They eventually find their way to a temple where they hope a giant crystal will return them to their own dimension, which is where the Sleestak first appear. Don't worry - this is definitely still a comedy and even director Brad Silberling (of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) knows that.

Silberling chose not to go with a newly rendered CGI look for the Sleestaks because he preferred the guy-in-suit human-like look for the sake of comedy. "There is a sense of humor that I loved from the original show that can only come from an actor trying to negotiate the suit. If it became CG, they'd be too perfect. For the Sleestak to remain in people's memories, it tells you that it was about who was in the suit." One unfortunate update - instead of using crossbows (damn that sounds awesome), the Sleestaks will fire quills from their spines.

Land of the Lost is currently shooting now for a July 17th, 2009 release next summer. I'm crossing my fingers and still hoping this isn't too cheesy of a family comedy, but I'm expecting it won't be. I want pure 70's fantasy humor more than anything I really hope that's what we're going to get. "Saturday Night Live" writer Dennis McNicholas and "Entourage" writer Chris Henchy penned the script for this remake and Brad Silberling (Casper, Lemony Snicket, 10 Items or Less) is directing.

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