The Land That Time Forgot (2009 film)
Encyclopedia
The Land That Time Forgot (promotionally titled Edgar Rice Burrough's The Land That Time Forgot) is a 2009
science fiction
film by independent American film studio The Asylum
. The film is an adaptation of the 1918 Edgar Rice Burroughs
novel of the same name
, and a re-make of the 1975 Amicus
film starring Doug McClure
. As with many recent Asylum films, this might be considered a low budget mockbuster
, made to capitalize on a larger-budgeted film with a similar name - in this case the 2009 film Land of the Lost
.
.
The island, which seems to exist within a time void inside the Bermuda Triangle
, is full of anachronistic inhabitants, including dinosaurs and a crew of a stranded German U-Boat
. The newlyweds, along with the charter boat's captain and the Germans, must battle a variety of obstacles to escape the island and get back to their own time.
At first the plan is to rescue a woman named Karen from the Germans and then take their boat away, but their guides Jude and Conrad betray them and steal the boat, leaving them to the Germans. Eventually, the captain convinces the Germans for them to work together to get off the island and they are able to free the U-Boat and make diesel fuel from oil on the island. Unfortunately, Frost is left behind as he can't get to the sub in time and his wife Karen joins him on the island again. The sub gets away, but it is unclear if it ever returned to civilization. Frost writes down his story and puts in a thermos and throws it in the ocean. He and Karen have found a life on the island and Karen is pregnant.
stories by Jules Verne
(The Mysterious Island
) and Arthur Conan Doyle
(The Lost World
), among others. When the Amicus film became a hit, its success coincided with the 1970s Land of the Lost
TV series by Sid and Marty Krofft
. The 1991 TV revision of Land of the Lost
starred Timothy Bottoms
, who also stars in the 2009 Asylum film, which itself appears timed to be released on DVD at around the same time as the comedically re-imagined big-budget Land of the Lost
film starring Will Ferrell
.
2009 in film
The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
film by independent American film studio The Asylum
The Asylum
The Asylum is an American film studio and distributor which focuses on producing low-budget, usually direct-to-video productions. The studio has produced titles that capitalize on productions by major studios; these titles have been dubbed "mockbusters" by the press.-History:The Asylum was founded...
. The film is an adaptation of the 1918 Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
novel of the same name
The Land That Time Forgot (novel)
The Land That Time Forgot is an Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the first of his Caspak trilogy. His working title for the story was "The Lost U-Boat." The sequence was first published in Blue Book Magazine as a three-part serial in the issues for September, October and November 1918...
, and a re-make of the 1975 Amicus
Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions is a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England. It was founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg.-Horror:...
film starring Doug McClure
Doug McClure
Douglas Osborne "Doug" McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s...
. As with many recent Asylum films, this might be considered a low budget mockbuster
Mockbuster
A mockbuster is a film created with the apparent intention of piggy-backing on the publicity of a major film with a similar title or theme and are often made with a low budget. Often these films are created to be released direct-to-video at the same time as the mainstream film reaches theaters or...
, made to capitalize on a larger-budgeted film with a similar name - in this case the 2009 film Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost (film)
Land of the Lost is a 2009 American science-fiction comedy film directed by Brad Silberling and starring Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Anna Friel, based on the 1974 Sid and Marty Krofft TV series of the same name.-Plot:...
.
Plot
The film takes place in the present, when two newlywed couples are enjoying a charter boat cruise through the Caribbean. Passing through a bizarre storm, they emerge off the shore of the mysterious island of CapronaCaprona (island)
Caprona is a fictitious island in the literary universe of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Caspak trilogy, including The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and Out of Time's Abyss.-The Island:...
.
The island, which seems to exist within a time void inside the Bermuda Triangle
Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances....
, is full of anachronistic inhabitants, including dinosaurs and a crew of a stranded German U-Boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
. The newlyweds, along with the charter boat's captain and the Germans, must battle a variety of obstacles to escape the island and get back to their own time.
At first the plan is to rescue a woman named Karen from the Germans and then take their boat away, but their guides Jude and Conrad betray them and steal the boat, leaving them to the Germans. Eventually, the captain convinces the Germans for them to work together to get off the island and they are able to free the U-Boat and make diesel fuel from oil on the island. Unfortunately, Frost is left behind as he can't get to the sub in time and his wife Karen joins him on the island again. The sub gets away, but it is unclear if it ever returned to civilization. Frost writes down his story and puts in a thermos and throws it in the ocean. He and Karen have found a life on the island and Karen is pregnant.
Tie-ins
Burroughs' novel itself was arguably an attempt to capitalize on the success of earlier Lost WorldLost World (genre)
The Lost World literary genre is a fantasy or science fiction genre that involves the discovery of a new world out of time, place, or both. It began as a subgenre of the late-Victorian imperial romance and remains popular to this day....
stories by Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
(The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1874. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways, though thematically it is...
) and Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
(The Lost World
The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Lost World is a novel released in 1912 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals still survive. It was originally published serially in the popular Strand Magazine during the months of April 1912-November 1912...
), among others. When the Amicus film became a hit, its success coincided with the 1970s Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost (1974 TV series)
Land of the Lost is a children's television series co-created and produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. During its original run, it was broadcast on the NBC television network....
TV series by Sid and Marty Krofft
Sid and Marty Krofft
Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft , are a sibling team of television producers who were influential in children's television and variety show programs in the USA, particularly throughout the 1970s and early 1980s....
. The 1991 TV revision of Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost (1991 TV series)
Land of the Lost is a half-hour Saturday-morning children's series that debuted on ABC in the fall of 1991. The series was very popular, ranking #1 on Saturday Mornings during its first season, and ran for an additional season. Re-runs were later picked up by Nickelodeon...
starred Timothy Bottoms
Timothy Bottoms
-Early life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the eldest son of Betty and James "Bud" Bottoms, who is a sculptor and art teacher. He is the brother of actors Joseph Bottoms , Sam Bottoms and Ben Bottoms . In 1967, Bottoms toured Europe as part of the Santa Barbara Madrigal...
, who also stars in the 2009 Asylum film, which itself appears timed to be released on DVD at around the same time as the comedically re-imagined big-budget Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost (film)
Land of the Lost is a 2009 American science-fiction comedy film directed by Brad Silberling and starring Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Anna Friel, based on the 1974 Sid and Marty Krofft TV series of the same name.-Plot:...
film starring Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
.
Cast
- C. Thomas HowellC. Thomas HowellChristopher Thomas "Tommy" Howell , known by his stage name C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and film director. He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey. He has appeared in The Da Vinci Treasure,Soul Man, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, Gettysburg, H. G...
as Frost Michaels - Timothy BottomsTimothy Bottoms-Early life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the eldest son of Betty and James "Bud" Bottoms, who is a sculptor and art teacher. He is the brother of actors Joseph Bottoms , Sam Bottoms and Ben Bottoms . In 1967, Bottoms toured Europe as part of the Santa Barbara Madrigal...
as Captain Burroughs - Darren DaltonDarren DaltonDarren Jack Dalton is an American actor, screenwriter, and film producer.-Acting career:Dalton's career began in 1982 when cast as Randy Anderson by Francis Ford Coppola during a nationwide talent search for the ground breaking teen ensemble The Outsiders.After The Outsiders Dalton reunited with C...
as Cole Stevens - Stephen BlackehartStephen BlackehartStephen Blackehart is an American actor and producer from Hell's Kitchen, New York. It has been reported that Blackehart was born Stefano Brando and is the son of actor Marlon Brando...
as Lonzo - Lindsey McKeonLindsey McKeonLindsey Johnson McKeon is a two-time Daytime Emmy-nominated American actress, and distant relative of Australian celebrity, Harry McKeon. She is best known for her roles as Marah Lewis on Guiding Light and Taylor James on One Tree Hill...
as Lindsey Stevens - Anya Benton as Karen Michaels
- Christopher ShowermanChristopher ShowermanChristopher Frederick Showerman is an American actor.-Biography:Born and raised in Michigan, Showerman embarked on an acting career after school - he attended Michigan State University, where he majored in music - and moved to Hollywood to pursue that dream...
as Stack - Patrick GormanPatrick GormanThis article is about the American actor. For the British actor, see Pat Gorman.Patrick O. Gorman is an American theatre, film and television actor....
as Conrad - Scott Subiono as Zander
- David Stevens as Jude
- Lew Knopp as Cooper
- Christian Stoehr as Lukas
- Jonathan Sanders as Oliver
Reception
Andrew Wickliffe of The Stop Button called the film "relatively harmless, with far better acting than I was expecting", going on to praise the work of Howell, Dalton and Bottoms particularly. Dread Central tabbed the film as "forgettable" and "thoroughly uninteresting", and Horror Talk would seem to concur, saying "Despite numerous action scenes and fairly solid acting, The Land That Time Forgot remains rather boring and forgettable", while Daniel Roos called it "really not that bad, seriously. The storyline is sound and the changes to the original plot are improvements (at least in terms of a streamlined film are concerned)".See also
- The Land That Time Forgot - A 19751975 in filmThe year 1975 in film involved some significant events, with Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws topping the box office.-Events:*March 26 - The film version of The Who's Tommy premieres in London....
film starring Doug McClureDoug McClureDouglas Osborne "Doug" McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s...
- The Land That Time ForgotThe Land That Time Forgot (novel)The Land That Time Forgot is an Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the first of his Caspak trilogy. His working title for the story was "The Lost U-Boat." The sequence was first published in Blue Book Magazine as a three-part serial in the issues for September, October and November 1918...
- The 1918 novel by Edgar Rice BurroughsEdgar Rice BurroughsEdgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
.
- Princess of MarsPrincess of MarsPrincess of Mars is a 2009 direct-to-DVD science fiction film made by American independent studio The Asylum, based on the 1917 novel A Princess of Mars by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The novel shares some elements with James Cameron's Avatar, as mentioned on the film's promotional art...
- another film by The Asylum based on books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, released in the same year.
- War of the Worlds 2: The Next WaveWar of the Worlds 2: The Next WaveWar of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave is a 2008 direct-to-DVD science fiction film starring and directed by C. Thomas Howell....
- Another Asylum film starring and directed by C. Thomas HowellC. Thomas HowellChristopher Thomas "Tommy" Howell , known by his stage name C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and film director. He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey. He has appeared in The Da Vinci Treasure,Soul Man, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, Gettysburg, H. G...
, who also appeared in the previous film H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds.
- The Day the Earth StoppedThe Day the Earth StoppedThe Day the Earth Stopped is a 2008 direct-to-DVD science fiction film made by American studio The Asylum, directed by and starring C. Thomas Howell...
another science fiction film by The AsylumThe AsylumThe Asylum is an American film studio and distributor which focuses on producing low-budget, usually direct-to-video productions. The studio has produced titles that capitalize on productions by major studios; these titles have been dubbed "mockbusters" by the press.-History:The Asylum was founded...
starring and directed by C. Thomas HowellC. Thomas HowellChristopher Thomas "Tommy" Howell , known by his stage name C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and film director. He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey. He has appeared in The Da Vinci Treasure,Soul Man, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, Gettysburg, H. G...
External links
- The Land That Time Forgot announcement at The AsylumThe AsylumThe Asylum is an American film studio and distributor which focuses on producing low-budget, usually direct-to-video productions. The studio has produced titles that capitalize on productions by major studios; these titles have been dubbed "mockbusters" by the press.-History:The Asylum was founded...
- The Land That Time Forgot main listing at The AsylumThe AsylumThe Asylum is an American film studio and distributor which focuses on producing low-budget, usually direct-to-video productions. The studio has produced titles that capitalize on productions by major studios; these titles have been dubbed "mockbusters" by the press.-History:The Asylum was founded...