Netflix has picked up the rights to a remake of Lost In Space, the old Irwin Allen sci-fi series that dared to ask, “How long could a family of boring people survive in space at the mercy of a rampaging character actor?” (Three seasons in the 1960s and one godawful movie in the ’90s, as it ultimately turned out.)
The new series is being pushed forward by producer Kevin Burns, who’s apparently been trying to get the Robinson family back on TV for almost 20 years, a mighty Sisyphus pushing a boulder no one wants up a hill called “Common Sense.” On the creative side, the new series is being developed by Dracula Untold screenwriters Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, no strangers to unnecessary retreads of well-traveled material, and directed by Neil Marshall, from Dog Soldiers and The Descent.
It’s still early days for the series, so there’s no word yet on who the producers will end up casting for the roles of “a bunch of people standing around, bored,” while whichever character actor ringer they bring in to play Doctor Smith does his stuff.