Before you get your tiny rubber raft and head down stream this summer and find yourself in the Land of the Lost, let director Brad Silberling be your survival guide.

{sidebar id=1}It has to be by far one of my most beloved childhood memories, sitting down and watching Sid and Marty Kroft's The Land of the Lost.

Who could forget the classic lyrics?

Marshall, Will, and Holly on a routine expedition
Met the greatest earthquake ever known.
High on the rapids it struck their tiny raft,
And plunged them down a thousand feet below.

To the Land of the Lost.

To the Land of the Lost.

To the Land of the Lost.

I was a toddler the first time that I had my encounter with a Sleestak and now three decades later I found myself on the set of Universal Pictures' Land of the Lost starring Will Ferrell.

I had so many questions to ask, what will the Sleestaks look like? What about Chaka? Will we see the Library of Skulls? Everything you need to know and more was explained when we sat down with director Brad Silberling on the set of the Land of the Lost.

IESB: The unwritten rule is that the bigger and more expensive the comedy is, the less funny it is. How do you avoid that with a movie as big as this?

Brad: Well, its interesting. It sounds crazy, but beneath that is a truth, which is that if you just throw money at something, it will have to be better, and I think thats actually true for even not a comedy, but especially for comedies of this scale. The way you beat that is making sure that you actually only pull in the resources you need to make the movie that you need, and not using the dollars as a crutch. So, the crazy truth is that this thing could have been vastly more expensive, at so many turns. I had the most pleasurable experience, about a year and a half ago. 

When I finished Lemony Snicket, I went off and did this picture of this little script that Id written, that I did with Morgan Freeman, that cost $2 million and we did it in 15 days. It was the biggest pleasure ever. So, oddly, that really bled into the beginning processes of this. Again, at corners where we could have just said, Okay, lets just completely blow it out, and get into all CG environments and do this and that, I wasnt interested. I created a box in which I knew I wanted all of my physical construction and effects to fit in, and I really wanted the film to be as tactile as possible and as handmade as possible. From the beginning, we said, If youre carrying something, youre not going to literally carry those sets that Sid and Marty had. They were 20x20 and now they look cliche because they were somewhat tropical. But, the idea of it still being a Hollywood stage man, for the most part, I was really excited about. I thought that was part of the ethos for the series.

So, I came up with a number and said, Guess what? Its all going to fit within this, and were going to figure out if theres a portion thats digital. We knew that the dinosaurs were going to be, but that was going to be the one key element. Ive done three movies with ILM and Im working, for the first time, with Rhythm & Hues. I love the family at ILM, but in the end, it came down to a $2 million difference in overhead and everything else, which in the grand scheme might not be a big deal, but I wanted that in the movie. I think the big answer is that you try to get it to the bone and make sure that, if youre spending the money, its for the right reasons.

My hope for Will and the other actors was that, having an actual environment thats tangible to bounce off of, would only help the comedy. Youre in a certain degree of scale. I really wanted scale to come into play, in the film, and not just have imagined scale that they were going to have to guess, but really have it, and it has worked. Its great because then theyre freed up to play against things and to throw away things. They know the environment is right there and its working for them. That was the goal. 

IESB: Was there ever a thought to go CGI?

Brad: I wasnt interested in it. I knew, from the get-go, in terms of dinosaurs, there were only two ways to go, really. One was to go back to stop-motion and live in the Land of the Lost from the 70's, and Will and I both said to each other, That would be a fantastic sketch for about six or seven minutes, and you would love it, but youre not going to do an entire film that way because we actually do have to still believe were in this environment.

But, beyond that, the discussion came up about the Sleestak, and it certainly came up about a number of environments, and I actually believed that we could still ultimately do it equally, if not more cost effectively, if we went ahead and smartly built it. And then, I knew, like with the Sleestak, I wanted to feel suit performers. I wanted to feel actual performers in those suits because I certainly responded to that when I was a kid. You go back now and look at what they were doing and it was hysterical, but I still somehow responded to that.

The difficult thing that you have with fully CG is that, for example, I was late with seeing I Am Legend and I know that they went ahead and made that switch, but I would love to see what the original performers did because all I saw was just CG-rendered. They were actually just supposed to be mutated humans and that knocked me right out of the movie, so Im always reminded of that. So, the temptation was easy to resist, right up front. This studio had Evan Almighty, the Bruce Almighty sequel that was incredibly expensive, and we knew, walking in, we were going to be walking into a studio, living with that on their shoulders. And so, the idea was to say, Heres what its actually going to cost. Heres what it doesnt need to cost, but heres where were going to put our emphasis. Thats how we really wanted to make the movie, and theyve actually been pretty amazing.

IESB: Comparing this to something like Jurassic Park, where for a lot of the close-ups, you had the Stan Winston animatronic T-Rex, was there ever a thought of actually bringing in anything animatronic?

Brad: No.

IESB: Has it come to the point now where you can do close-ups as good?

Brad: You can. Michael Lantieri was my on-set special effects guy. He did Jurassic, and Jurassic 2 and 3. When they started Jurassic, they thought Stan was going to have to carry the bulk of the movie and, at that point, Phil Tippetts go-motion stuff was going to be something where they really didnt know if the CG component was going to work. And then, Steven [Spielberg] started seeing shots from Dennis Muren, during production, and thats when they went, Oh, my God!

In the end, what can happen is, even if you just have an animatronic foot coming down, its time and schedule, which is that sometimes the actual manipulation of the animatronic piece can be such that it can end up driving the rest of the animation in a bad way. If theres limitations, suddenly it can only come in at this pace or at this angle. Steven was honest about the number of things that were animatronic that they actually replaced, CG-wise. They basically do digital paint and paint them out, and then put in the CG. So, youve come from a place in 93 or 94 that now, even for close-up work, if youre going to do it smartly, you go ahead and do that.

And, on a cost level, you bring on Stan or any of those houses and spend the money, just for a few key cutting pieces, it doesnt really make a whole lot of sense anymore. And, in commercial work, Ive done some stuff with animatronics and Im always frustrated by it. Its really funny. We have a certain component in this movie, too. Enik, who is the intelligent Sleestak, is another suit performer, but we created an animatronic head because I wanted him to have actual lip sync in a way that they never did in the original show.

And, our Sleestak have more little detailed extras that the originals never did, and some of thats also still animatronic. But, thats the threshold of my level. Beyond that, it starts to get really frustrating.

IESB: Whats the whole circular thing of skulls on the set that we just looked at?

Brad: Though its a stylistic difference, thats a lift from the original show. They had what they called the Library of Skulls, and it was in one of the pylons. The Library of Skulls was an oracle that was basically a star chamber of the intelligence. The Sleestak race is called Altrusians. This is the deep science of Land of the Lost. And, Altrusia is this parallel version of Earth, essentially.

And so, thats the Library of Skulls made up of old, deceased skull heads that basically are the star chamber. They sit in judgement, making sure that the culture is preserved, and whos to live and die. That pit, from the original show, is the pit of the Sleestak God. You cant tell theres color, but there is the sense that there is a being that is occasionally made sacrifice to, and youll hear this being from below. That was the source of two or three episodes of the original show, so I really wanted that to come into play because weve taken a character from the original series -- without too many spoilers -- thats Enik, and he has other intentions than he used to have.

Theres a great scene where Enik, who is living and breathing, squares off with all of the Sleestak heads in the Library of Skulls and you realize theyre his old peers and hes had something to do with their demise. Theres a whole story there. That came into play because Holly, Anna Friels character, tries to go off on her own mission to basically find something that will help vindicate Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell). He gets abducted, so shes there, poised to be sacrificed, and our heroes have to come to try to save her. Thats where they have an important stand-off moment with Enik.

IESB: The scene we saw being shot was more of a dramatic scene.

Brad: In a way, thats one of the key dramatic moments in the entire movie. I cant tell you exactly whats happening, but theres this amazing moment. Basically, Rick Marshall makes a really major mistake when he arrives at the Land of the Lost. As soon as they arrive, they find themselves caught in this feeding station, unbeknownst to them, and they confront this T-Rex, who is Grumpy from the original show, for the first time. And Marshall, who is this noted celebrity paleontologist that can miss the joke sometimes, makes the mistake of completely offending Grumpys intelligence, and is very happy to tell everybody that they dont have an issue because hes got a brain the size of a walnut.

That walnut-size brain gives him horrible depth-perception. The T-Rex is actually retreating and you see him stomp in the distance, listening to this, and he turns and looks, and it begins this relationship, through the whole thing. Its Moby Dick. He is constantly coming after Rick Marshall, in the movie. He doesnt care about the others. He wants to take Marshall out. And, in this third act sequence, finally Marshall realizes that, in this key moment, he has to square off with Grumpy.

Theyve had a couple of really big near scrapes. Theres a major sequence in the picture, which is really funny, where theres this chase where Grumpys after him.

So, he has to square off with him and, over the course of this fight, he gets into a situation. Basically, they manage to do away with all of the Sleestaks who are up there, protecting the Library of Skulls, and Marshall has to go down to try to tackle Grumpy alone. Hes not exactly a martial artist, so he gets stuck with this staff and he tries to do some horrible bad moves.

He gets knocked away and he gets cornered and, in a desperate moment, he harkens back to an inspirational poster that we see, in the beginning of the movie, back in his office at the La Brea Tar Pits, that everybody thinks is ridiculous, but he lives by it. Its an image of a pole vaulter, and it says, If you dont make it, its your own damn fault. Its a poster about risking. And so, he has this incredible desperate moment where hes actually stuck in a corner and has this staff, and realizes the only way hes going to get the fuck out of here is to actually try to pole vault Grumpy. And, he does and its all the set-up you would have for a great heroic moment where hes going to leap over Grumpy and makes the jump, and as hes going in, hes like, Too low!, and goes right into Grumpys mouth, to Grumpys surprise, and Grumpy sits back, swallows and is done, before the fight even started. He just gets swallowed whole by Grumpy.

You saw a moment not far after that, where Anna Friels character and he have just confessed their affections for each other, and she literally watches him be swallowed. And, Danny McBrides character is really impressed in a YouTube-like way because he thinks its kind of fantastic, but cant believe what he just saw. What you saw is actually a key moment in the movie, and it actually ends up being a set-up for the last major sequence because they basically want to go back and try to avenge his death.

IESB: Did Will bring Danny McBride to you?

Brad: Oh, yeah. I had not seen The Foot Fist Way, so last summer, when Will and I were talking about the movie, he said, You tell me who youre thinking of, but can I send you this film. While I was on vacation, he sent me a knock off of a DVD of the film and I was just frightened. Its such a great movie because, at times, its such an unwatchable movie. Hes just so unrepently what he is. Youre kind of moved by the guy, but youre horrified. And, I was dumb-founded. I was like, Oh, my God!, because he just feels like a genuine article.

What we really wanted to do was not sit and recreate a family structure, but really create something new. I had a real specific idea for Holly, and we just knew we wanted Will Stanton to be a character who has this really wrong roadside attraction out in Palmdale. Thats what he is. It just happens, unfortunately, that thats where they believe there is this spot thats a time door, so they have to go deal with him, and McBride just seemed perfect. So, it was one-stop shopping.

IESB: How was the studio about the casting? When you have Will Ferrell, does that mean you can cast other people that maybe arent as big?

Brad: Is it always that way? No. In this case, without a doubt, they knew that, on a marketing level, they were going to place most of it on Wills shoulders. The first time I sat down with them, a year ago, I said, Heres what I think we need to do, in terms of some story, and I marched into the studio just to tell them what I thought it needed to be and what stages to reserve.

It was really funny. I was pitching away about story and the turns that needed to happen, and Donna Langley, this very small woman who runs production, was looking at me and, about half-way through, I said, Heres what youre hearing right now: Will Ferrell, dinosaurs, Will Ferrell, dinosaurs, and she stopped and looked at me and said, Okay, its kinda true. And, I said, I know. What Im saying to you, you dont give a shit about. But, it was really funny. Theres no question that what they were interested in, and what their investment was going to be, was about taking Wills brand of comedy and a certain sensibility and then placing it into this. It wouldnt have been just a slam dunk. Even though Dannys just had movies coming out, like with Tropic Thunder and The Heartbreak Kid, and a couple other things, word on the street was that he was definitely a comer, and they saw his material and thought he was great, so it wasnt a huge arm twist. And, likewise for Anna Friel. I think Annas genius, and yet its not like youre casting Angelina Jolie, in terms of notoriety. I thought her role is vitally key in the film.

Rick Marshall is odd. Theres a certain degree of eccentricity to the character and, as an audience, we have to respect somebody who respects him. That was my whole thing. I wanted her character to be British, partly just because Americans have such an inferiority complex and think all Brits are really smart, with the accent. So, I said, I actually want a British woman to come over and I want it to be that the premise is that she probably got booted from Cambridge because she was the one person who followed this mans theories and believed in him and, as a result, had her own career potentially sidelined.

If shes a smart actor and shes a smart character and she believes him, somehow the audience will go there too. That was my argument for casting somebody who was British, and for casting Anna, and they all went for it.

IESB: Whats been the feedback, when fans of the original heard that Will Ferrell was going to be in the remake?

Brad: I havent listened to a lot. I saw some anecdotal stuff and I saw one thing that said, Comedy? Are they out of their minds? And then, my favorite response to that was, Have you seen the original show?, which I thought was kind of genius. The great thing with any zealots, in terms of any property, is that youre going to have people that cant imagine it any other way. I would simply say to them that the good news is that people can certainly go and watch the DVD collection.

IESB: Dont you have to just ignore it and make the film you want to make?

Brad: You kind of always do. I think some of the worst adaptations and remakes are made when people just try to make the book on tape version of it. Why would you do it? In this case, unless you want to do a sketch, to go off and do a deeply sincere family story, I dont know who would need it or why.

Youd need another reason for being. In this case, youre taking a group of characters who are much more impaired. Its the wrong people who should be trying to save Earth, and thats whats funny to me. You take a guy who, even if hes incredibly smart, life circumstances have made him deeply insecure and very plagued, and hes now the guy who has to go and actually believe in himself enough, and the other people around him, to actually make their way through this and actually save the planet.

IESB: You built a huge set for where this whole event happens, right?

Brad: Yeah. The premise is that McBrides character has what they call the Devils Canyon Mystery Cave. Clearly, when you see it from the outside, it looks like it probably was once a carnival ride. Its in the middle of a bunch of high-energy power lines, out in Lancaster/Palmdale, so its nowhere near any geological structures, but its this cave. You go there and you go to the gift shop and pay five bucks to go take a look. Its this character Wills mystery cave. Its like a bad Pirates of the Caribbean. You go in there and hes got some Tiki torches up. Its just awful. And, hes the tour guide. Its this cheesy little roadside attraction. Well, it just so turns out that that is where, with Marshalls equipment, this event is triggered. We built that, here at the studio, on Stage 29. That was an actual piece of moving water, and we built all the interior here.

IESB: Do you have any throw away gags in the film, where you just do a social value to the audience?

Brad: Well, more tonal than social value. We have some, but weve just lifted whole lines that were fantastic, in the pilot of Land of the Lost, where they meet Chaka. Chakas leg has been hurt and the Rick Marshall character, who the series never really tells you what he did or what his job is, unless you read the writers bible, you never really knew. But, Rick Marshall stumbles upon Chaka and his foot has been hurt, and he comes up to him and basically says, Chaka, let me take a look at that leg. Now, mind you, Im not a licensed physician. And, it was the most genius moment ever, so thats right in the movie. They meet Chaka. The only thing we did was really amplify it.

I told Sid and Marty this when I met them, but Chaka disturbed the hell out of me, as a kid. It was a combination of the make-up on that young boy, Phil Paley, but I just didnt like Chaka. I was not President of the Chaka Fan Club, and I dont think I was alone. So, what we did was take that and make it into a situation where Marshall has a major hate-on for Chaka. He thinks hes a con man. Its exacerbated by the fact that, when they first meet him, they see him about to be executed. Two other Pakuni have taken him out to what looks like this sacrificial spot and it looks like hes about to get killed. They interrupt that moment, and thats how Chaka is saved.

But, the first night theyre going to go to sleep in the cave, Marshall is like, I do not want him sleeping in the cave. He was about to get executed, and theres probably a reason. And, Chakas whole story is just that that was a political coup. Hes really the prince of a major tribe. But, at any given turn in the film, when they get in trouble, Chaka bails on them. Constantly. When a dinosaur comes, boom, hes gone. At times, hes even trying to get in their way to save his own ass. Its the greatest character. Hes so self-serving, so Marshall wonders, What is he about?

When they first meet Chaka, we had that very moment where Chakas about to have been executed on this sacrificial table, the other guys get scared off, he comes over and Will Ferrell is like, Chaka, Im Dr. Rick Marshall. Yes, Dr. Rick Marshall. Lets have a look at that leg. Now, Im not a licensed physician. And, its the best thing ever! Theres less poking fun at the nutritious content, but we do have little moments. Whenever Chaka does something really crappy, he says, Friend! Friend!, so Marshall is constantly going, You are pushing the limits with that term! That is not how friends treat each other! We work it a little bit.

IESB: Can you talk about juggling the tonal aspects, keeping the adventure real while keeping the comedy?

Brad: I always think, as long as youre committing to stakes, its not even an effort. If you commit to a real circumstance, the comedy can come right out of it, depending on peoples actions in that circumstance. If Marshall is saying something absurdly rude to a dinosaur, and the dinosaur acts like a real voracious dinosaur and wants to come and kill him, the proportions of that scene get incredibly funny, and its not because the dinosaur is patting its feet or its tail and its cute. These dinosaurs in the movie are not cute, at all. They are acting like what one hopes and believes.

So, I think the comedy comes right out of it, in a great way, and its just amplified by not soft-pedaling the circumstance. We totally go for it. You can do both. When (production designer) Bo Welch was starting to watch dailies, he said to me, I have never seen comedy and peril go together, and thats what it is. There is weird, crazy shit that happens in the movie that will make people jump, but its earned, and yet youre laughing the next moment, just because of how these characters respond. If the characters stay true and you commit to the stakes of the scenes youre doing, and then execute them, hopefully, vigorously, its great.

With the biggest chase sequence in the movie, what I didnt want it to be was incredibly manicured. I wanted it to feel like fuckin chaos, and it goes on and on. Because Grumpy wants him, Marshall has to basically go through this entire, crazy obstacle course of things to try to evade him, and it was really great fun to shoot because we did it in a way thats going to be so hard for Rhythm & Hues because its not manicured at all. Its literally like assassination footage. I kept referencing that footage from the day when they tried to shoot Regan.

The whole thing feels like that, so youre in and out of it with him, and the cameras flying and the zoom was working in and out. Its really verite style, for this whole sequence where this T-Rex is trying to take it out of this guy. That was actually the balancing act. It was like, No, this is actually really going down, and I want the audience to feel like theyre witnessing it, and the characters just acting in a flunky way. Thats the hope, anyway.

LAND OF THE LOST opens in theaters June 5!

More from the set of LAND OF THE LOST -

Land of the Lost On Set Visit Interview: Will Ferrell

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