Advertisement
Brad Silberling Visits Land of the Lost
Left to Right: Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny McBride and Brad Silberling on the set of Land of the Lost (2009).
Every movie is personal. Period. Any moviemaker believing otherwise is in denial, or worse, simply making excuses.
How’s that for a heavy mantra? A bit daunting? You bet. And I believe every word of it.
Land of the Lost is my sixth feature film, and each time I start the process, I slam head-on into the words of my remarkable mentor, director Martin Ritt (Hud, Norma Rae, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold). Marty kept it simple: “If you don’t know where you are in your film, it’s counterfeit.” That, and the other gem of artistic responsibility: “If you have talent, it’s just dumb f-ing luck. It’s what you do with it that counts.”
Now, was Marty saying that every film is a literal autobiography? Of course not. What he did believe though, and drilled into my impressionable head on a daily basis, is that every movie—regardless of genre, budget or intended audience—is hollow without the personal, artistic and emotional commitment of the moviemaker. Cinema breathes this commitment. It is dead without it.
After all, movies are, in essence, the sum total of the choices you make as a moviemaker. How can they not be? Every angle you compose, prop you choose, performance you shade and score you include betrays your point of view. They reflect your insight (or lack thereof) into the story you’re telling and your individual sensibility. This isn’t a responsibility you shy away from—it’s one you revel in. It’s your movie, dammit! And no one else can tell it as well.
So how does this square up with the corporate priorities of delivering a four-quadrant summer “tentpole” movie event, laden with high costs and expectations that it’s “good for the whole family,” from eight to 80? Ah, that’s where the magic comes in… and a whole lot of fighting spirit.
Land of the Lost was a title I’d last encountered while parked on a couch on Saturday mornings when I was 10 years old. In a sea of Hanna-Barbera animation, “Land of the Lost” leapt out and seized me by my pajama collar for two reasons: a) It was live action and b) it was insanely psychedelic. What other program would dare mash up stop-motion animation, dinosaur puppetry, suit-performing lizard guys, a sci-fi mythology laden with crystals, gold pylons and alternate universes and use the banjo as its main score instrument?
You knew brilliant and twisted minds were behind it. More importantly, for young viewers, you felt like you were getting away with something. You were part of something subversive.
That would become the single biggest reason for my making the feature some 30 years later—and my own personal way into telling the story.
When Will Ferrell told me over lunch one day that he and his manager, Jimmy Miller, had persuaded Sid and Marty Krofft to let them take a big-screen swing at the property and asked if I’d be interested in working with them on it, here are the key impressions that immediately came flooding back: Of course, the banjo-heavy theme song (more on that later); the shape of the “home” cave; the Sleestaks and their trademark hiss; the pylons and some funky-ass crystals on a matrix table; a rock span over a river crevasse the family would escape over to evade Grumpy the T-Rex; and a hairy young creature named Chaka who creeped me out.
Those were the elements that managed to etch themselves onto my emotional hard drive. Witness the beginning of directing this movie…
1 of 2 |
SHARE THIS STORY |
TAGS |
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Del.icio.us
Reddit
YahooAdvertisement
COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Turismo Viagem on 7/02/09 at 9:56 am
“If you don’t know where you are in your film, it’s counterfeit.”
This quote made me think a lot. I had to change the location of where I am in my head to grasp the reality of this philosophy :) Lol…- Comment by Ooty on 8/19/10 at 1:35 am
You have all inspired me to focus on providing more informative and resource type link building posts in the future, so stay tuned for more soon.
- Comment by sniper2 on 9/26/11 at 3:12 pm
- Comment by sniper2 on 9/28/11 at 5:51 pm
This story was published in the Spring 2009 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Tentpole This!/How to personalize your summer event movie and not get caught
Order this issue | Subscribe to MM
posted 02.10.12
posted 02.8.12
posted 02.7.12
posted 02.1.12
SITE DELIVERY OPTIONS
